Facebook Says Ad Growth Not Keeping Pace With Daily Users

Facebook Inc. (FB), the social networking service that is preparing for an initial public offering, said gains in daily users outpaced advertising growth in the second quarter as more members accessed the site from mobile devices.

Facebook, which announced plans to sell mobile ads in February, also saw advertising growth lag behind usage in the first quarter, according to a regulatory filing today. The company cited fewer ads on some pages, after saying it wouldn’t sacrifice user experience for short-term sales growth.

The social network, which uses its growing user base to woo advertisers, plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion in an IPO that could value the company at $96 billion. Facebook has more than 900 million monthly users and had 526 million daily active users on average in March, up 41 percent from the year ago period.

Facebook is offering 337.4 million shares at $28 to $35 each, and is scheduled to price the offering on May 17, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

First-quarter sales climbed 45 percent to $1.06 billion, a decrease from 55 percent in the December period. Profit fell 12 percent to $205 million as sales growth slowed and marketing costs more than doubled, the Menlo Park, California-based company said in a filing last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

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