Facebook Inc. has risen to new highs in the fourth quarter with the social networking giant posting $3.85 billion in revenue off the back of a surge in mobile advertising.

Revenue from advertising came in at $3.59 billion, up 53 percent on the same quarter in 2013. Mobile advertising delivered 69 percent of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2014, up from 53 percent of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013.

For the full year ending December 31st, Facebook reported revenue of $12.47 billion, an increase of 58 percent over 2013. Income from operations for the full year 2014 was $4.99 billion, while net income for 2014 came in at $2.94 billion.

Despite a maturing social networking marketplace, Facebook impressed with an 18 percent increase in daily active users (DAUs), which sat at and average 890 million users in December 2014, up 18 percent year-over-year. Mobile DAUs were 745 million on average in December, up 34 percent year-over-year.

Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.39 billion as of December 31, 2014, up 13 percent versus December 2013. Mobile MAUs were 1.19 billion an increase of 26 percent year-over-year.

Facebook’s profit came in at 54 cents per share on the $3.85 billion reported figure for Q4, beating analysts who expected 48 cents on $3.77 billion in sales.

The increase in its user base wasn’t cheap however, with costs surging in the quarter, up 50 percent to $1.63 billion, as Facebook invested in growth opportunities.

The company had a busy year on the acquisitions front in 2014, acquiring WhatsApp, Oculus Rift and others; along with its earlier acquisition of Instagram Facebook now has owns the top four most downloaded apps worldwide in 2014: WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook itself, and Facebook Messenger.

“We got a lot done in 2014. Our community continues to grow and we’re making progress towards connecting the world,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

While some have been predicting that the bubble may eventually burst for Facebook for a variety of reasons, including user saturation and a view among teens that it is no longer “cool,” the strong growth figures are a credit to Facebook and its leadership under Zuckerberg. User saturation will happen one day (there are only so many people in the world) but with the company reaching out into spaces such as virtual reality, new verticals may well keep driving growth at the company for many years to come.

Image credit: Duncan Riley