Shares in Facebook jumped by 9% to $119 in after-hours trading in the US last night after the social media company announced a 52% surge in first quarter revenues, bucking a trend that has seen fellow online giants such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google disappoint investors during this earnings season.

Quarterly revenues rose to $5.4bn, slightly above most expectations, while the number of monthly active users of Facebook also continues to grow strongly – up 15% to 1.65bn.

In contrast, Twitter’s regular monthly users rose modestly to 305 million in the same period.

The company is dominating the battle for screen-time, the average user spends 50 minutes on Facebook apps every day spread across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.

The tech giant has been putting a push behind advisor-friendly video content and live-streaming.

Mobile ad revenue accounted for 82% of total ad revenue during the first quarter of 2016 - compared to 73% last year.

Control

In tandem with the earnings announcement, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has proposed the creation of a new class of non-voting or “C” shares that will allow him to maintain control while issuing new shares to fund acquisitions and reward employees.

The CEO's voting power has fallen from 67.2% to 60.1% during the past two years.

He said that being a "founder-led company" has been of benefit to the company and that it has allowed it to focus on long-term growth, rather than short-term gains.