Facebook Reports Increase In Revenue, Despite Controversy

Despite the companies public relations battle, Facebook reported a surge in revenue in its quarter one report released earlier today. This was in stark contrasts to what analysts predicted for their earnings report.

The data-privacy scandal seemed to have almost no effect on their earnings, as Facebook reported $4.99 billion in quarterly profits, topping net worth predictions of $4.01 billion. Stocks traded up nearly 5% has Facebook ended the market day at $159 during regular trading.

Of the companies regular revenue, mobile sales made up 91% with the rest being split between desktop ads and and Facebook’s other businesses, such as Instagram.

Daily active, and monthly active users capped in at about 1.45 billion and 2.2 billion respectively. These numbers fell in line with predictions by FactSet. Operating expenses have come in below consensus expectations, though Zuckerberg has said that the hiring of 20,000 new employees who will address security concerns will begin to eat into profits.

According to their Q1 earnings release, Facebook’s workforce has grown 48, a considerable amount considering the down-slope that the company has faced in the market.

Despite the PR mess with Cambridge Analytica, Mark Zuckerberg said that it has not had a material effect on earnings, at least not yet. Zuckerberg warned investors that there would be a decline in user activity, and overall, less time would be spent on the platform, though that decline has been slow, and only a small amount of users dropped their accounts altogether.

However, less user time on the platform doesn’t necessarily mean less revenue, as declared by Facebook Chief Financial Officer, David Wehner.

The stock market has been suffering the past few weeks due to multiple controversial events, such as the tariffs and counter-tariffs engaged by China. Facebook is one of the larger companies to slip into the red and remain there for quite a while at a time.

Only more time will tell whether the controversy surrounding the company will permanently affect its user base, or scare away investors but for now the company seems to be dealing with the mess quite well.