Data-rich Facebook sees revenues soar

Facebook’s revenue doubled to $1.6 billion in the first half of the year, shrugging off social networking competition from Google.

Net income in the first half of 2011 came to almost $500 million, according to a source close to the company’s books, who wished to remain anonymous.

The revenue hike is largely due to advertising gains, as marketers look to exploit Facebook’s wealth of personal data.

“We really see Facebook as becoming like the operating system for delivering ads on the internet,” said Dave Williams, CEO of Blinq Media, which runs ad campaigns for companies on Facebook.

Companies like Yahoo are relying on third party user behavioural data based on things like cookies. On Facebook that’s data that users have revealed about themselves

Facebook accounted for almost a third of all internet display advertisement impressions in the US in June, more than the combined total of Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and AOL, according to analytics firm comScore.

Large brand advertisers as well as local businesses are increasingly spending marketing budget on Facebook, drawn by its vast number of users and the ability to target ads to consumers based on their interests, said Blinq Media’s Williams.

“Companies like Yahoo are relying on third party user behavioural data based on things like cookies. On Facebook that’s data that users have revealed about themselves,” he said.

Facebook’s increasing allure to marketers has helped boost ad rates, with the price that advertisers pay for every consumer that clicks on a Facebook ad increasing 62% between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2011, according to Efficient Frontier, another firm that helps companies deliver ad campaigns on the site.