Revised Market Forecast Chops $1B From Facebook Revenue In 2012

Things haven't exactly gone swimmingly for Facebook post IPO. The company has seen the value of its stock decline, and according to a new revised forecast published by the market research firm eMarketer; Facebook is going to make a lot less money this year than previously expected. The market research firm has slashed $1 billion from the 2012 Facebook revenue forecast.

I wonder if this revised market forecast will affect Facebook's stock price. The revised forecast expects Facebook to break $5 billion in revenue this year with $4.2 billion of that revenue expected to come from advertising. The remainder of the revenue will come from payments and other sources. That is a decline of $1 billion from the market forecast the company published in February, before the Facebook IPO.

While eMarketer is predicting significantly less revenue for Facebook this year, the social network is still expected to see his ad revenues grow significantly for 2012 compared to previous years. According to the research firm, ad revenues will grow 34% this year compared to 2011. The company also expects Facebook's ad revenues to grow 29% next year.

Interestingly, eMarketer's new revenue forecast doesn't take into account mobile advertising. Facebook's ability to generate revenue as more users go strictly to mobile devices for access has been questioned by many investors. Forbes reports that many felt eMarketer's original estimates were on the high side and its revised prediction of around $5 billion in revenue for 2012 is more in line with predictions made by other analysts.

[via Forbes]