Facebook is within reach of 2 billion users

Facebook hasn't hit 2 billion users per month, but it's getting pretty damn close.

Just when you thought Facebook already connected the entire world, it's proving that it can grow faster than ever before.

Facebook now reaches 1.86 billion monthly active users, having added 70 million users in the quarter. That's an 18 percent increase from the year prior and up from the 17 percent bump last quarter.

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From all those billions, Facebook pulled in $8.8 billion in revenue over the quarter, but the numbers get quite staggering when you look at the year overall. While in 2015, Facebook bought in $17.9 billion, the company closed out 2016 with $27.6 billion.

You don't pay for Facebook, directly, but indirectly what this means is that Facebook pulled in $19.81 per user in the U.S. and Canada in the last quarter, up from $13.70 the year prior.

Just another quarter, according to Zuckerberg's lackluster statement on the company's report.

"Our mission to connect the world is more important now than ever," Zuckerberg said in a statement "Our business did well in 2016, but we have a lot of work ahead to help bring people together."

Zuckerberg's words ring true to investors' fears that the company has squeezed out as much as it can from its users, where 2017 could mean less growth. Facebook Chief Financial Dave Wehner has issued guidance for the last couple quarters with that in mind.

For now, Facebook's ability to simultaneously grow users and revenue is impressive.

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Facebook's stock was up 2 percent in after-hours trading. That rise comes even after a report dropped just minutes before the release that Facebook will have to hand over $500 million after a jury found Facebook's Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey guilty of violating a non-disclosure agreement.

Mobile is (still) king

The biggest driver in revenue and user growth is on mobile -- no surprise. Facebook now counts 1.23 billion daily active users, where 1.15 billion of them are on mobile.

For ad revenue, mobile represents 84 percent of the total, up from 80 percent in the year prior, but the same as last quarter.

Mobile is so important but so steady to Facebook, in fact, that it will eliminate breaking out mobile in its future reports.

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Desktop shouldn't be completely ignored. Another bright spot in Facebook's report was its ability to drive up desktop ad revenue by 22 percent, despite usage dropping. That's in part due to Facebook's effort to limit the effect of ad blockers, Wehner said.

There's fear that Zuckerberg is losing out on the millennial market, as attention goes to Snapchat and other apps like Musical.ly.

While Facebook declined to share its demographic breakdown of its users, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said that the millennials are still on board.

Facebook has a lot going on with mobile. Its app ecosystem includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Investors have long feared that each of these apps can cannibalize each other.

Zuckerberg defended the network by describing the different strategies, particularly with Messenger and WhatsApp.

"WhatsApp really takes the place of SMS ... with businesses ... whereas on Facebook Messenger the graph is your friends," Zuckerberg said. "Messenger is focused on being an impressive, rich [app]. ... WhatsApp is a much more utilitarian experience."

Future attention

The biggest growth in ad sales continues to stem from Facebook's core app. But it's beginning to crank the gears more on Instagram. The photo- and video-sharing app now has 400 million daily active users, up from 300 million reported in June 2016.

Earlier this year, Instagram opened its Stories feature up for advertising. It's moving much more slowly on Messenger and WhatsApp.

"In 2017, we’ll stay focused on helping businesses of all sizes reach customers around the world and grow," Sandberg said.

Seeing as Facebook has pretty much flatlined its growth in the U.S., the company is focusing its user acquisition strategy internationally.

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That can mean bringing more people online in the first place. "We have now connected more than 50 million people to the internet," Zuckerberg said about Facebook's Internet.org initiative.

Facebook, the company that lost out on desktop but won mobile, is positioning 2017 as an investment year. The company currently has 17,000 employees and has plans to hire more, particularly in its virtual reality division.

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Don't expect significant money to come in from virtual reality, however.

"I think it’s going to be a 10-year thing," Zuckerberg said.

This story was updated after the 5 p.m. EST call with analysts.