Facebook profits, user base dive even as scandals grow

Facebook’s spat with Apple on Wednesday reveals it can’t avoid of problem. But the social media appears unsusceptible to scandals too.

Monthly active users– the variety of individuals who go to to Facebook on a monthly basis– increased 9 percent year over year to 2.32 billion in the 4th quarter, which endedDec 31. User development is essential for Facebook, that makes its cash by offering marketing targeted to user interests.

The increase in users comes as the business handles yet another shiner. Overnight, Apple obstructed a research study app the social media was dispersing to iPhone users, after it was found Facebook had actually avoided the evaluation procedure. The Facebook Research app paid users in between the ages of 13 to 35 as much as $20 each month in exchange for letting Facebook gain access to their phone and web activity, consisting of individual messages.

The scrape with Apple comes as Facebook, which still published a 61 percent increase in revenues, is coming to grips with the most severe crisis in its 15- year history. The management of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg has actually been brought into question, especially after The New York Times reported that the 2 executives neglected cautions and deflected blame as scandals installed. The social media has actually likewise dealt with criticism for supposedly offering other tech business higher gain access to to user information than was formerly revealed. And Facebook’s image wasn’t assisted by a software application bug that exposed the pictures of as much as 6.8 million individuals to third-party app designers.

The issues, together with growing issues about how Facebook benefit from the user information it gathers, triggered require individuals to erase their Facebook accounts. The motion was so prevalent that the hashtag #DeleteFacebook trended on Twitter for a duration inMarch

“There’s a lot of negativity about the impact of technology. Some of it is fair and some of it is misplaced,” Zuckerberg stated throughout a teleconference with experts onWednesday “And we and the tech industry overall should be scrutinized heavily because we play a role in many people’s lives.”

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Facebook is a moneymaking machine

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During the call, the 34-year-old tech mogul outlined four of Facebook’s priorities for 2019, which include making progress on the social issues facing the internet and Facebook, building services that improve people’s lives, supporting businesses and being more transparent about the role Facebook plays in the world. Zuckerberg didn’t address the tech firm’s clash with Apple during the call. 

Facebook saw the most growth in monthly active users in Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world from the third to fourth quarter, data from the company shows. But the company also noted that 11 percent of its monthly active users in the fourth quarter may have been from duplicate accounts, a data point that was slipped into the fine print of the last page of its presentation. False accounts — those that are created for spam, pets, businesses or organizations — may have made up about 5 percent of its monthly active users.

On Wednesday, Facebook reported that its revenue grew by 30 percent to $16.9 billion in the fourth quarter, beating the estimate of $16.3 billion forecast by analysts who were surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The company posted a profit of $6.9 billion in the fourth quarter.

Facebook shares jumped nearly 12 percent in after-hours trading to $168.33 after the conference call ended.

An uphill battle

Zuckerberg has defended the company’s business model, arguing last week in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that it enables billions of people to connect with family and friends for free, and lets small businesses sell their products and create jobs.

But the company still needs to demonstrate that it’s doing enough to safeguard user data, given its track record on privacy. In March, Facebook revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based political consultancy, harvested the data of up to 87 million users without their permission. 

Facebook is also trying to do a better job of educating users about how to control the ads they see on the social network. A study published this month by the Pew Research Center showed that 74 percent of adults in the US who use Facebook didn’t know the social network keeps a list of their interests and traits for ad targeting.

Meanwhile, Facebook has bigger problems to worry about, including the spread of misinformation on the site, as well as election meddling by Russia and Iran. 

On Monday, Facebook outlined how it was stepping up its efforts to combat fake news ahead of the European Parliament election in May. The company, which has faced allegations that it’s suppressing conservative speech, also provided more details about a new board it’s creating to help review content it keeps up or pulls down. 

First published Jan. 30, 1:17 p.m. PT.
Update, 1:40 p.m.: Adds background.
Update, 3:59 p.m.: Adds Zuckerberg’s remarks from conference call. 

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