Facebook’s strong 2013 dimmed by a slowdown in revenue growth

The shine on Facebook’s strong year on year Q1 2014 results have been dimmed by a slowdown in revenue growth from Q4 2013, and the prospect of lower gear revenue growth for the rest of the year.

That's according to Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, who believes for the social media giant, mobile continues to lead the way.

"Mobile continues to be the star of the show in terms of revenues and usage – mobile advertising now accounts for 59% of total advertising revenues," says Zoller, speaking following the announcement of Facebook’s results last week.

"App Installs showed solid progress with over 350m installs to date, although it was disappointing but not surprising to learn that Facebook’s new mobile advertising network is unlikely to have a significant impact on mobile advertising revenues in the near term."

Zoller believes there was also a muted note from properties that were expected to be performing better by now, notably video adverting and the monetization of Instagram where Facebook is moving slowly, although its caution is "understandable."

"Payments continue to be a conspicuous weak spot for Facebook (with the exception of desktop games) and it needs to address this given the complementary, interconnected nature of payments and advertising," Zoller adds.

"Facebook has new payment related initiatives underway such Nearby Friends, a one-click payment feature and also the anticipated move into mobile money transfers, but given Facebook’s poor track records in payments to date it remains to be seen whether its new moves on this front will move the needle.”