Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) may be the most obvious contenders for the crown in the mobile world, but an earnings report released on Wednesday afternoon showed Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) as a real challenger to the duopoly in charge of smartphones. According to the figures released on Wednesday, 62 percent of Facebook’s revenue came from mobile, and a billion people used the social network on their phones at least once a month in the second quarter.

Those two figures, alongside the outsized headline earnings numbers contained in yesterday’s report, drove the company’s stock to all-time highs overnight and have seeded the market’s view of the company with extreme optimism. The future of Facebook is clearly in mobile, and the company looks strong enough to put itself on the top of the pile as the market matures.

Google Faces A Real Challenger In Facebook

Google controls about a third of total desktop ad revenue, but the company faces absolutely no close challengers in the market. Facebook, though it has been able to cash desktop checks, will never be able to take control of the business and turn it to its own ends. In mobile, however, Facebook is in a much more convincing position, albeit still well behind Google in total market share.

Facebook’s strength in mobile allows it to offer a real alternative to Google advertising, and it allows the Menlo Park company to have an actual effect on the business as a whole. The mobile advertising market is still nowhere near fully mature, and CPCs are still well behind their position in desktop, but Facebook’s current proportion of mobile customers could be a boon to future development.

Google is trying to leverage a strong position in both mobile and desktop to create packages that see advertisers work across platforms. Facebook can avoid that complexity and focus on its mobile offerings in order to maximize its revenue. This could result in the company outstripping the quality of Google ads, resulting in a stronger CPC and a leadership position in the mobile world. That’s the least investors are hoping for, and given the numbers Facebook showed off yesterday afternoon, it’s clear why.

Earnings Show Facebook Boom

Facebook showed earnings of 42 cents per share for the three months through June on revenue of $2.9 billion. Before the company released those numbers, the consensus guess from analysts was at a profit of 32 cents per share on revenue of $2.8 billion. Facebook surprised everyone with yesterday’s numbers, and the stock market is likely to show it this morning.

In pre-market trading Facebook stock was standing at more than $77.50 per share. That’s an increase of close to 9 percent overnight, on the back of a strong rise on Wednesday’s market before the release of the earnings numbers. Facebook shares will open at an all-time high in today’s market, and it will be up to investors to decide whether the company’s future is worth betting on at that price.

Disclosure: Author represents that he has no position in any stocks mentioned in this article at the time this article was submitted