• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
No Result
View All Result
1
Home Business

Facebook sales grow as users tick up

31 October 2019, 10:12 AM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
Figurines are seen in front of the Facebook logo in this illustration.

Facebook’s total expenses in the third quarter were $10.5 billion, up 32% compared with a year ago. The third-quarter operating margin was 41%, compared with 42% a year ago.

Figurines are seen in front of the Facebook logo in this illustration.

Image: Reuters

Facebook’s total expenses in the third quarter were $10.5 billion, up 32% compared with a year ago. The third-quarter operating margin was 41%, compared with 42% a year ago.

Facebook Inc reported an uptick in users in lucrative markets and its third straight rise in quarterly sales growth on Wednesday, but the company’s controversial political ads stole the limelight when CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke to analysts.

Shares rose about 4.5% after hours to $196.64. That put the shares on track to eclipse their record closing high of $194.32 in June 2018, just before a dramatic drop that summer amid escalating costs.

Over the last three years, Facebook, the world’s largest social media company, has faced rising hostility from both users and lawmakers over its handling of user data and its inability to ensure the integrity of its popular news feeds.

Zuckerberg opened his earnings conference call on Wednesday by defending the company’s policy to run ads from politicians containing false or misleading claims, saying that Facebook did not want to stifle political speech, even as rival Twitter Inc said earlier in the day that it was banning political ads around the globe.

Facebook on Monday confirmed to Reuters that some employees had criticized its policy in an internal letter. Zuckerberg estimated ads from politicians would account for under 0.5% of Facebook’s revenue next year.

“I expect that this is going to be a very tough year,” he said, adding that controversies over political content could lead to investigations.

Zuckerberg last week was barraged with aggressive questions by lawmakers over Facebook’s steps to combat misinformation ahead of next year’s presidential election when he appeared at a Congressional hearing.

Facebook’s competitive practices currently are under investigation separately by the US Congress, Department of Justice, FTC and 47 state attorneys general.

Zuckerberg said that much of the scrutiny would be around the company’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012, but he said that though Facebook took out a competitor, its eventual success was not guaranteed at the time.

Facebook executives, whom analysts say typically offer conservative guidance, continued to warn that the company’s revenue could be hurt by external challenges including new features on Facebook and internet browsers enabling people to block the type of online tracking that has been essential to Facebook’s algorithms for targeting ads.

But financial analysts said Facebook remains too popular among users for advertisers to ignore.

“Yes, Facebook has a lot of challenges it must deal with, but increasing its revenue and user count isn’t one of them,” Debra Aho, eMarketer principal analyst, said in an email.

COST CONTROL

Facebook’s total expenses in the third quarter were $10.5 billion, up 32% compared with a year ago. The third-quarter operating margin was 41%, compared with 42% a year ago.

Facebook forecast 2019 total expenses at approximately $46 billion to $48 billion, or an increase of 55% at the high end of the range compared with 2018. It estimated 2020 total expenses in the range of $54 billion to $59 billion, up 23% over this year’s estimate at the high end.

Concerns over privacy have fueled an acceleration in costs for privacy staff and other roles. Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet Inc’s Google also have been under pressure to police their platforms after facing criticism for failing to counter alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Third-quarter revenue rose 29% compared with a year ago to $17.65 billion, beating analysts’ average estimate of $17.37 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Facebook, the world’s No. 2 seller of online ads, said revenue would grow more slowly in the fourth quarter, at closer to about 20% to 25%, partly due to users choosing to limit the company’s ability to target ads to them using personal details.

Facebook reported $6.09 billion in profit, or $2.12 per share. Analysts expected $5.47 billion in profit, or $1.91 per share.

For the quarter, the company reported 2.8 billion monthly users and 2.2 billion daily users across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, both slightly higher than the prior quarter.

Facebook itself had 1.62 billion daily users, versus estimates of 1.61 billion. After experiencing stagnant user growth in Europe and the United States in previous quarters, Facebook added daily users compared to the previous quarter in all four of its regions for the first time this year.

Facebook shares have gained about 43.6% this year through Wednesday’s close, thanks to above-expectations revenue in the first half of the year. The company reached a $5 billion settlement in a US Federal Trade Commission probe, which started after its Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal and threatened to cost the company several more billions.

Facebook’s existing businesses continue to grow at a fast pace. But whether it can maintain the momentum has been unclear with newer ventures including privacy-focused messaging services, its expansion into online dating or its burgeoning features for group discussions and eBay-like shopping center.

Last week, Facebook also started to test Facebook News, a new section of its mobile app dedicated to “high-quality news,” which will see some publishers paid for access to their content.

But the company came under fire from some political activists over its decision to include right-wing news website Breitbart News as one of its publishers. Facebook said Breitbart will be an unpaid publisher.

Facebook on Wednesday also said one of its board directors, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chief executive of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, would be stepping down and that a replacement would be named in the coming months. Zuckerberg said she is leaving for health and other commitments.

Share article
Previous Post

WATCH: State Capture Inquiry, 31 October 2019

Next Post

Nigerian supreme court dismisses appeal against Buhari election win

Related Posts

Workers hand over memorandum to Seriti Klipspruit Colliery amid retrenchment

22 September 2023, 5:15 PM
Chickens are seen at a poultry farm outside Klerksdorp in the North West province, South Africa, August 15, 2018. Picture taken August 15, 2018.

Avian flu outbreak expected to drive up egg, chicken prices

22 September 2023, 5:00 PM
A person holding South African notes.

Sigh of relief for indebted consumers as repo rate remains unchanged

22 September 2023, 8:09 AM
A taxi rank.

Cashless taxi service launched in Cape Town

21 September 2023, 8:01 PM

INFOGRAPHIC | Changes in repo rate since 2022

21 September 2023, 6:49 PM
[FILE IMAGE] Taxis wait to receive passengers at a taxi rank.

eThekwini municipality, Taxi association seek to resolve uMhlanga Rocks rank dispute

21 September 2023, 5:25 PM
Next Post
Buhari took 56% of the vote against 41% for Atiku, according to electoral commission data. A Buhari victory had been widely anticipated.

Nigerian supreme court dismisses appeal against Buhari election win

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • High waves and rough water conditions force beach closures in the Western Cape
  • UPDATE: Public warned not to go to W Cape beaches as another spring tide expected
  • Spring high tide leaves trail of destruction along Garden Route
  • ‘Buthelezi was a good man who did a bad man’s job’
  • A Celebration of a Legacy: Amabutho, IFP pay final tribute to Prince Buthelezi
  • High waves and rough water conditions force beach closures in the Western Cape
  • Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi to rest in the town he built and nurtured
  • NSPCA files criminal case against Julius Malema for alleged animal cruelty
  • Snow, heavy rainfall expected in parts of KZN: SAWS
  • Cold-front sweeps across SA bringing snow and chilly temperatures
  • Concern over exclusion of foreign nationals from Road Accident Fund
  • Limpopo multi-million rand water treatment, sewage project abandoned
  • R103 to be closed for demolition of Lynnfield Bridge on N3 towards Durban
  • 4 SANDF members killed in Upington head-on collision, 2 critically injured
  • Leaders in Zimbabwe need to find a lasting solution: Mbeki

LATEST

  • South Africa

231 rhinos lost to poaching in SA this year, ongoing concerns on World Rhino Day


[FILE IMAGE] A fire destroys residential properties.
  • South Africa

ANC building up in flames in Port St Johns


  • South Africa

Joburg Water monitors troubled water systems closely


[FILE IMAGE] William Nicol Drive, during the start of the Covid-19 lockdown.
  • Politics

ANC welcomes renaming of William Nicol to Winnie Mandela Drive


South Africa's Faf de Klerk in action with Romania's Adrian Motoc.
  • Sport

Ireland unfazed by Springboks ‘7-1 bench split’


Palestinians throw objects next to an Israeli military vehicle during a raid near Tubas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
  • World

Israeli military hits Gaza Strip as protests continue


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2023

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2023

Previous WATCH: State Capture Inquiry, 31 October 2019
Next Nigerian supreme court dismisses appeal against Buhari election win