Facebook fielded a plan on Wednesday to tighten Mark Zuckerberg’s grip on the helm, as the booming social network reported stellar results.

Profit in the first quarter tripled from a year ago to $1.5bn, as revenue jumped to $5.4bn from $3.5bn in the same period a year earlier.

“We had a great start to the year,” said Facebook co-founder and CEO Mr Zuckerberg.

The key metric of monthly active users rose to 1.65-billion, up 15% from a year previously.

And those using Facebook daily, rose 16% to 1.09-billion, with strong gains in the numbers of people using mobile devices.

The report shows Facebook is using its dominant position in social media to boost advertising revenues as it connects more people with new services, such as live video.

Facebook also announced that its board of directors had approved a plan to create a nonvoting class of stock intended to raise capital, while leaving Mr Zuckerberg in control of the company’s vision and direction.

Shareholders will get to vote on the proposal at an annual stockholders meeting on June 20, according to Facebook.

The move aims to allow Mr Zuckerberg to remain in charge, even as he gives away the bulk of his holdings to charity, as he announced last year with his wife.

Facebook went public in a way that kept control in the hands of founders, instead of putting it in the grasp of shareholders.

“If you want to increase your control, now is the time to do it, so people won’t fight you,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of the move. “If you buy into Facebook, you are buying into Zuckerberg and his team; and they are executing very well right now.” (AFP)

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