Social networking giant Facebook, Inc. has once again defied market predictions hitting a new record high in the third quarter.

Revenue at Facebook was up 41 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier to $4.5 billion with net profit rising to $896 million (31 cents a share), up 11 percent from the same quarter in 2014; market “analysts” were expecting earnings of 52 cents per share with $4.37 billion in revenue.

Once again mobile advertising revenue led the pack, representing 78 percent of advertising revenue for the third quarter, up from 66 percent in Q3 2014.

The increase in revenue was in part attributed to Facebook increasing the number of ads it showed users over the past year, and growth in its still fairly nascent video advertising offering with the company reporting that currently more than eight billion video views happen on the social network every day.

Capital expenditures came in at $780 million for the quarter while cash and cash equivalents (including marketable securities) was $15.83 billion; free cash flow for the quarter was $1.41 billion.

Total expenses came in at more than $3 billion in the third quarter, a 62 percent leap from a year earlier due to Facebook continuing to heavily invest in hiring, marketing, new technologies and other initiatives.

The number of people using Facebook has defied the critics once again and continued to grow with the site reporting daily active users of 1.01 billion on average for September 2015, up 17 percent year-over-year; mobile daily active users of 894 million, up 27 percent year-over-year; monthly active users of 1.55 billion as of September 30, up 14 percent for the same period in 2014, and mobile monthly active users of 1.39 billion, an increase of 23 percent year-over-year.

“We had a good quarter and got a lot done,” Facebook founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We’re focused on innovating and investing for the long term to serve our community and connect the entire world.”

Forward growth

Continued quarterly growth by Facebook doesn’t come as a surprise as the company also hit record highs in the second quarter, but the question remains: how long can Facebook continue to grow at this rate given it remarkably claims one in seven humans now use the service each day?

The obvious answer to that for investors is when Facebook eventually hits a ceiling for its core social networking product (it has to eventually) growth opportunities will come from other services the company owns, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and perhaps if it’s well received when it comes to market in 2016, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset; of note Instagram now has 400 million users, Messenger has 700 million, and WhatsApp has 900 million.

Whatever path the company takes shareholders are willing to back it, with shares in Facebook jumping 3.76 percent to $107.85 in after hours trading.

Image credit: andrewfeinberg/Flickr/CC by 2.0