AKIPRESS.COM - Facebook profits tripled to $642m as revenues soared 72% in the first quarter of 2014, with the company continuing to shift its customers – and advertisers – to its mobile platform, The Guardian reported.

Comfortably beating analysts’ expectation the company said Wednesday that it had revenue of $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in the first quarter. Revenue from advertising totalled $2.27bn, an 82% increase from the same quarter last year. Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 59% of ad revenue for the first quarter of 2014, up from approximately 30% in the first quarter of 2013.

Facebook said it had 1.28bn monthly active users at the end of March, up 15% year-on-year.The number of mobile monthly active users in March was 1.01bn, up 34% year-on-year.

The social networking company reported the results in a quarter when it has made some of its biggest bets. In February, Facebook bought WhatsApp, a messaging service, for $19bn. Last month it spent $2bn on Oculus, developer of virtual reality software.

"Facebook's business is strong and growing, and this quarter was a great start to 2014," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "We've made some long-term bets on the future while staying focused on executing and improving our core products and business. We're in great position to continue making progress towards our mission."