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Facebook Shares Shoot Up After Strong Q4 Earnings Despite Scandals (techcrunch.com)

Despite Facebook's recent scandals, such as the site's biggest data breach, the social media company managed to beat Wall Street's estimates in its Q4 earnings. "Facebook hit 2.32 billion monthly users, up 2.2 percent from 2.27 billion last quarter, speeding up its growth rate," reports TechCrunch. "Facebook climbed to 1.52 billion daily active users from 1.49 billion last quarter for a 2 percent growth rate that dwarfed last quarter's 1.36 percent." From the report: Facebook earned $16.91 billion off all those users with a $2.38 GAAP earnings per share. Those numbers handily beat Wall Street's expectations of $16.39 billion in revenue and $2.18 GAAP earnings per share, plus 2.32 billion monthly and 1.51 billion daily active users. Facebook's daily to monthly user ratio, or stickiness, held firm at 66 percent where it's stayed for years, showing those still on Facebook aren't using it much less. Facebook shares had closed today at $150.42 but shot up over 9 percent following the record revenue and profit announcements to hover around $162. A big 30 percent year-over-year boost in average revenue per user in North America fueled those gains. Yet that's still way down from $186 where it was a year ago and a peak of $217 in July.

Facebook's monthly active user plateaued in North America but roared up in Europe. That was shored up by a reversal of last quarter's decline in Rest Of World average revenue per user, which fell 4.7% in Q3 but bounced back with 16.5 percent growth in Q4. Facebook raked in $6.8 billion in profit this quarter as it slowed down hiring and only grew headcount 5 percent from 33,606 to 35,587. It seems Facebook has gotten to a comfortable place with its security staff-up in the wake of election interference, fake news, and content moderation troubles. Its revenue is up 30 percent year-over-year while profits grew 61 percent, which is pretty remarkable for a 15-year old technology company.

31 comments

  1. Principles abandoned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... profits grew 61 percent ...

    Dividends are supreme: See all principles abandoned in the face of more money. Corporations owning corporations accelerates this because they don't judge profits by their social cost. With the power of free speech, corporations (and corporatists) can insist such nihilism is necessary and beneficial.

  2. Hand up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not a technology company. An advertising company.

    If I can't go to the shops and buy a Facebook, they're not a technology company.

    1. Re:Hand up by denzacar · · Score: 1

      They do what they want cause their product is free... You are their product!
      Yarr har fiddle dee dee
      Being a product is alright to be
      They do what they want cause their product is free...
      You are their product!

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    2. Re:Hand up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you buy "Facebook", you're selling away your dignity.

    3. Re:Hand up by BringsApples · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're certainly a technology company. It's just that the technology isn't to be used for their users, but rather on their users.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
  3. quick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    cue the basement dweller with the following -

    1) fuck facebook
    2) no one should use it
    3) they should be accountable to what infomation ppl volunteer for free on a free service

    oh wait - they don't mention point 3......

    because - data leaks aside - users are volunteering their information for free on a free service...

    plaster that shit on search engines.... thats not FB's fault ppl are idiots.

    1. Re: quick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh, it's not the stuff that folk post in FB that bothers me, it's the highly detailed tracking that FB is employing of everyone, FB users and everyone else, that concerns me.

      Then what totally freaks me out is the company's continued attempts to obtain even more data than the user volunteered - like when they deliberately employed a workaround to get users contacts list on Android, despite the user denying them that privilege.

      And that now we find out they deliberately and methodically misused their Apple Enterprise Developer License to totally bypass Apples walled garden to get kids and adults alike to install a VPN app which was then used to steal even more data.

      And let's not forget that they're still fighting the lawsuit about the friendly chargebacks when they targeted kids and all but told them to grab their parents credit cards then start to place a shit ton of in-game charges on them.

      But yeah, let's just blame the users because Facebook are just a bunch of saints, right?

    2. Re: quick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Mark Z - is that you?

  4. That's a good investment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A company which can do all that and still thrive is a company that customers can't avoid. No wonder the shares are up.

    1. Re:That's a good investment by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up.

      Facebook's product is the private data of anyone that uses Facebook. They just tricked a lot of folks into installing spyware in the form of a VPN app. So now they have even more data that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten from these users' regular use of Facebook.

      So why would it be a surprise that their stock just went up?

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    2. Re:That's a good investment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      added 1.2 billion AI bots as active users.
      also selling of AI bot technology made money.

  5. What the fuck is a shoot up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And how did they share it?
    Sounds like someone shot up their offices and they decided to share the love by shooting up their neighbors.

  6. Their monthly user estimate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what an absolute lie of the highest order. But hey its facebook wtf else do we expect.

  7. Morality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The morality of the stock market is perfectly exposed.
    It doesn't have any.

    1. Re:Morality by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Apple stock rose yesterday too. Also their earnings were less then what was expected, they were better then what the investor feared. So the stock went up.

      Oddly enough this is how I am rating world affairs, things are worse today then I expected them to be years ago, however it is better then my worse fears on what could go wrong. But for some reason I am not happy about it.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  8. so, can? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, can anyone actually validate these numbers?
    I mean, considering how Fuck-Book werkx..
    can anyone really say these statements are actually true?

    Fucking kill them, NO WAIT THATS A THREAT, IM SORRY..
    Cut it out like the cancer on society that it is..

    1. Re:so, can? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how the fuck is this different from
      https://news.slashdot.org/comm...

      Why is this comment not modded, but the other is??
      fucking msmash, you stupid bitch..
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
      That applies to you!

    2. Re:so, can? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm Discrimination?

      favortietism?

      this is fucking stupid, why does this place still exist?
      I agree, and I am sure others do as well,
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      totally applies here..

  9. Scandals? Who cares?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would investors care about scandals, it's all about the bottom line and Facebook's was/is awesome. It could come out that the Zuck bathes in puppy blood to maintain his youthful pastiness and Facebook shares would still go up if they also posted 17 billion in revenue.

    1. Re:Scandals? Who cares?! by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Facebook is an advertising company. There is a ton of add revenue for all the Facebook people to post that they are quitting Facebook.

      I don't think a lot of people really knows what it means to boycott something.
      Boycotting something actually puts you in a disadvantage to prove your point.
      I have heard people say they are boycotting whatever, 80% are boycotting something they wouldn't get anyways. "I will boycott Roles Royce, because ummm they are the car of the wealthy who do not pay their taxes". then 10% will boycott something until they don't. "I boycott all internet ads, except for the ones selling products I want to buy". 5% say they are boycotting something just because they don't want the product. "I am boycotting all Apple Products.... I am a Samsung fan, and I have never bought an Apple produce and never will"
      Only leaving a small percentage of people boycotting something for a cause, and their boycott will actually harm the business because it was actually lost business.

      Unless a Scandal has a long term effect on its customer base, its stock will be high, no matter how bad they are.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  10. But I mean, how do we know? by codefungus · · Score: 2

    Am I the only one, only programmer, who thinks, jeez, just you know, "update hits set hits = hits * 1.0012;"?

    How do we know those numbers are legit? Certainly, assessing facebook traffic numbers/members is as difficult to do as determining unemployment numbers. Is it so hard to believe that facebook would over-inflate it's numbers to compensate for the bad press and leaving members? As far as I know, there is no mechanism to verify the numbers they put out. And there seems to be a TON of money to be made based on these numbers.

    Am I wrong?

    --
    -- A cat is no trade for integrity!
    1. Re:But I mean, how do we know? by BlackOverflow · · Score: 1

      Unless those numbers are being validated by an independent 3rd party that isn't being paid off by FB, you are correct. If they are reporting their own numbers, they literally can report anything and noone has a way to dispute them.

    2. Re:But I mean, how do we know? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Reporting false information to the SEC is really a bad idea. And such fraud if not found out immediately will be reflected in the future.
      For example what was common back in the 1990's was a company who as near at finishing a sale that was near certain, Would put the product on the truck and count it as a sale for the day before they have to report their revenue. This was all fine and good, until the tech bubble popped, and a lot of these sales didn't go threw. So they needed to record an inflated loss the next quarter.
      And if caught, doing this a lot of bad legal problem will occur.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:But I mean, how do we know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those unethical strategies are many times greater than your ability to coherently string English sentences together. Your grammar is literally atrocious.

    4. Re:But I mean, how do we know? by RonVNX · · Score: 1

      Facebook's numbers have always been a made up fantasy. What do you expect in a world where nobody cares what the facts are?

    5. Re:But I mean, how do we know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yu would think lying to congress would be bad too? but meh

  11. DNS Server Not Responding in Windows by alistarsmith · · Score: 0

    Facebook is very useful for users nowadays because we can meet easily to our friends and family members online and chat with them. DNS Server Not Responding in Windows: https://www.microsoftwindowssu...

    1. Re:DNS Server Not Responding in Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hey look its a shitskin fake tech support scammer, fuck off and die chode

  12. Despite scandals? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    BECAUSE of them.

    And making it public knowledge that they have a load of private information and sell it is not scandals, at least not with those that matter, it's called "advertising to your actual customer".

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  13. It's obvious why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Certainly to me, it seems everyone is all too quick to be outraged about how FB mine and misuse their (our) data. Yet despite all this, when it comes down to it, people don't really seem to care... at all. Among my FB friends (even the supposedly intelligent ones) I can still see just as many posts appearing, revealing just as much personal data for Mr Z to get his grubby hands on.

    So we mostly hate FB and are quite vocal about it, yet without hesitation continue to give them exactly what they need to thrive.

  14. NOT earnings. Profit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Earnings" assumed they worked for the money, and hence deserve it fairly.
    As opposed to taking/stealing/robbing/leeching it.