Facebook warns 'costs will grow faster than sales this year'.

London, Jan 31: Social networking giant Facebook has warned Wall Street that its costs will grow faster than sales this year.

The warning came as the firm expects expenses to surge 50 percent this year as it acclerates the hiring of engineers and ploughs money into new ventures such as search.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told analysts that the 'firm is building profits for the long-term, the Telegraph reports.

Since its 104 billion dollars flotation last May, the firm has been under intense pressure to grow its mobile advertising business as more and more users access their Facebook pages on handheld devices rather than desktop computers.

According to the paper, it is a need that is unlikely to relent as Facebook said on Wednesday that the fourth quarter was the first in the company's eight-year history when more of 1.06 billion users logged on with mobile devices rather than traditional PCs.

Despite the drop in profits, investors took some encouragement as Facebook's latest results showed a jump in the share of its advertising revenue coming from mobile, the paper said.
Mobile accounted for 23 percent of the company's 1.33 billion dollars in advertising revenues in the final three months of the year. That is up from 13 percent in the third quarter, it added.
Source:Yahoo!