Facebook reports 1.45 billion daily averages users in Q1 2018 earnings

Facebook says its user base and and revenue increased significantly in the first three months of 2018, despite the setback caused by the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal. For context, the FB management team calls for 45% to 60% expense growth against actual expense growth of 30% seen in 2016 and 34% seen previous year, or what translates to $2.6 billion for 2016 and $3.6 billion by 2017.

Total revenue was US$11.97 billion, above the analyst estimate of US$11.41 billion.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of $1.35 per share with $11.41 billion in revenue.

Facebook shares climbed more than 4.7% to $167.33 in after-hours trades that followed release of the earnings figures. In regular trading, shares closed flat at $159.69 a share.

“Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018″, said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “Overall, 2018 is a year of important investment”.

British data analytics and political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica has been accused of harvesting personal information of millions of Facebook users illegally to help political campaigns and influence polls in several countries. Since Facebook ads are in demand, ad prices rise when it limits the supply. The data scandal broke in March, almost three months into the quarter. “There is a big gap between media reporting on the #DeleteFacebook movement and reality when it comes to brands, who seem to be as active as ever”.

“At first glance, impact from data/privacy issues appears minimal, with above-consensus financial results“, Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian wrote in a research note. Find us on Facebook too! The platform also enjoyed a 13% increase in monthly active users (2.2 billion), plus daily active users (1.45 billion alike). It would have been impossible to imagine a few months ago that Facebook’s top executives would feel the need to justify how the company makes money. To comply with the new law, Facebook recently committed to asking all of its users how their data can be used to power targeted ads and facial-recognition technology.

Physical adverts railing against fake news, spam and clickbait have also been seen around various major U.S. cities over the last month and are expected to start hitting more locations as the campaign continues.

Facebook might be weathering more headwinds than you can shake a stick at right now, but that didn’t stop it from posting gangbuster earnings on Wednesday.

“So we are now going through every part of our relationship with people and making sure we’re taking a broad enough view of our responsibility – not just to build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good”. Among the many reasons are rising expenses and the risks of European data regulations starting next month. In January, Zuckerberg said the company would give posts and other content from members’ friends and family a higher priority than material produced by third-parties such as news organizations, marketing companies and other for- and nonprofit corporate pages. Senator, we run ads.