1bn check Facebook on mobile every day

Facebook has revealed that more than 1bn people are checking the social networking site on their mobile device every day and that advertising revenue has rocketed.

The number of visits via mobile has increased by 22% year on year and overall daily visitors rose 17% to 1.13bn in the three months to the end of June. More than 1.7bn people access the site at least once a month.

Mobile usage has lead to a huge leap in advertising for this channel. Some 84% of Facebook sales are now generated by mobile ads, compared to 76% this time last year.

Quarterly revenues to the end of June his $6.44bn, a rise of 59%, while net income rocketed by 186% to $2.05bn. Both figures beat forecasts.

Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said that Facebook had performed well with video. "We're particularly pleased with our progress in video as we move towards a world where video is at the heart of all our services," he said.

Analysts suggest that video could be the next big growth area for Facebook advertising.

Facebook was founded in 2004 by Zuckerberg and a group of fellow Harvard students. It floated in 2012 and in the same year acquired image-led social network Instagram.

Facebook, along with all the major social networks, has been working towards making the site more shoppable for retailers and brands. It recently unveiled a suite of tools to make location specific marketing easier for retailers and to track which online ads led to in-store visits and sales.