Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Facebook keeps growing with 2.38B users in Q1, but saves $3B for FTC fine

Facebook reached 2.38 billion monthly users, up 2.5 percent from 2.32 billion in Q4 2018 when it grew 2.2 percent, and it now has 1.56 billion daily active users, up 2.63 percent from 1.52 billion last quarter when it grew 2 percent. Facebook pulled in $15.08 in revenue, up 26 percent year-over-year compared to Refinitiv’s consensus estimates of $14.98 billion in revenue. Facebook recorded earnings per share of $0.85 compared to estimates of $1.63 EPS. However, that’s beacuse Facebook has set aside $3 billion to cover a potential FTC fine that it’s still resolving. Without that fine, it owuld have had an EPS of $1.89.

Facebook’s share price rose 4.89 percent to $191.50 after closing before earnings at $182.58, way up from its recent low of $124.06 in December. Wall Street seems to have already priced in the potential FTC fine.

This is the first earnings report of a full quarter following Facebook’s worst-ever security breach in September that impacted 50 million users, shaking confidence in the social network’s privacy and security. It’s also the first full quarter in which Facebook sold its own branded hardware — its Portal video chat device that was well received by critics except for the fact that it was made by Facebook.

Yet the defining story continues to be Facebook’s struggle with claims that its developer platform endangered user privacy and steamrolled competitors in search of growth. The fact that Facebook isn’t losing massive numbers of users after years of sustained scandals is a testament to how deeply its woven itself into people’s lives.



from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2ZzbJK6

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