"One of the biggest knocks on Facebook was that they weren't able to build a successful mobile strategy," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. "It has changed mobile revenue from a rounding error to almost a quarter of its revenue. Facebook and Zuckerberg have done a pretty good job of patching up what used to be the biggest weakness - mobile."
During the call, Zuckerberg said that Facebook this year is focused on building new "mobile-first experiences" He didn't offer any details about what the "mobile-first experiences" might entail.
Analysts note that in addition to the increasing mobile revenue, Facebook proved that it can can take on a major challenge.
"The mobile revenue is very significant," said Olds. "First, it shows Facebook is becoming a much larger player in the fastest growing segment of online advertising. But second, and maybe as important, it shows that Facebook, as a company, can set objectives, come up with good winning strategies, and execute."
One of its best moves, analysts say, was coming up with what has become a highly popular Facebook mobile app that's been downloaded onto a huge number of smartphones and tablets.
Now, says Blau, Facebook needs to focus on improving its mobile and desktop ad strategy.
"They need to improve their advertising formats," said Blau. "I can tell you that the selection is limited now. There's a lot more they can do. They need to do more than just provide links and display ads. It needs to be more engaging than that. They need to give ads more depth and content."
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.
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