Facebook recently posted its most recent quarterly earnings data, unveiling an impressive end to fiscal 2016. The results showed that the website is still among the leaders of the social media industry, garnering an impressive 1.86 billion active monthly users, topping expectations that the company would have 1.84 billion active monthly users by the end of the period.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg and co. have been making a strong push to connect everyone on Facebook, including a program that hook up remote areas around the world for free, including rural Africa and certain parts of southern Asia.

Nearly 25% of the world's population is already on the network, and this figure will keep getting bigger.

Fourth-quarter earnings and revenue

The Silicon Valley juggernaut ended the year with a bang, posting earnings of $1.41 per share on an adjusted basis. The figure came out ahead of Wall Street projections of $1.31 per share on an adjusted basis. Meanwhile, Facebook's overall revenue tallied up to $8.81 billion, which was a full $300 million better than analysts' consensus estimate.

In addition to increasing its number of active monthly users, the social media outlet's daily active users figure also rose to 1.23 billion, ahead of the 1.21 billion that Wall Street was expecting. Ad revenue also grew 53% year-over-year.

The company spent a large part of its attention in 2016 to investing in virtual reality, which includes the acquisition of oculus. Zuckerberg recently announced Mark Hugo -- the former Google Android chief -- will be the head of Oculus VR. FB stock surged 2.2% on the news, while adding another 2.3% after hours.

What to expect from Facebook in 2017

As the company enters the new year, one of its main plans will be to add to its video content offerings. Zuckerberg -- who recently voiced his opinion on the Trump presidency -- announced that Facebook is working toward creating a video app that would work with set-top boxes such as Apple TV and Roku, giving users a slate of choices from the company's new video platform.

Social media sites have been putting more effort into adding live TV on their page, which includes professional sports and news broadcasts.

Facebook is also ramping up efforts to become an e-commerce platform. This concept started with a 2015 feature that allows you to send money to your friends via Messenger, followed last year by a platform where you can buy and sell items in a similar manner to Craigslist and eBay. In 2017, the company may add a functionality that will allow you to make orders, track shipments, and talk to customer representatives.

The future is bright for the multi-faceted Facebook, which has come a long way since being a competitor to MySpace in the mid-2000s.