Facebook’s financial success continues unabated in the face of countless security and privacy scandals, including a potential record-setting Federal Trade Commission fine. The fine, the potential amount of which was first reported by The Washington Post in February, is related mostly to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that was revealed in March of last year, as well as the seemingly never-ending series of subsequent breaches and leaks that have dogged Facebook in the months since.
The company posted first quarter earnings today for 2019, but it otherwise had a very strong Q1 earnings report. 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 because Facebook has set aside $3 billion to cover a potential FTC fine that it’s still resolving. Without that fine, it would have had an EPS of $1.89. Despite the set-aside, Facebook still earned $2.429 billion in profit, though that’s down from $4.988 a year ago and $6.8 billion in Q4 2018.
Regardless, Facebook continues to grow, and by all indications, it would have bested all analyst expectations had it not set aside cash for the fine. The company says the number of people who check Facebook daily has increased by 8 percent from this time a year ago, to 1.56 billion. The number of people who check Facebook monthly has also grown 8 percent, to 2.38 billion. The company says that even more of its business now relies on mobile, with 93 percent of all advertising revenues coming from its collection of mobile apps. Facebook now also breaks out the number of people who use at least one app in its broader ecosystem. “Around 2.7B people use Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger each month,” the company says. “On average, more than 2.1B people use one of our services every day.”
