Facebook was beset by privacy scandals in 2018 but even with these issues, the company still made plenty of money as shown in the Q4 revenue report. Based on the numbers in the datasheet, its profit soared to better-than-expected $16.91 billion.
According to CNN, the social networking company's revenues for the last three months of 2018 increased by 30% against the expectations of analysts that only predicted $16.39 billion in profits. The growth is not just in monetary terms but the number of its users increased as well.
Facebook revealed that it has recorded 1.52 billion daily users and 2.32 billion active monthly users. These figures showed that the number of users for both daily and monthly time frame rose by 9% which is slightly higher than the 2017's record.
Commenting on the unexpected revenue growth, CNBC quoted George Salmon, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, as saying "These numbers are actually some of the most reassuring in its short history."
Adding that, "Not only are login trends in Europe improving after a stagnant couple of quarters, but the group has also beaten expectations on revenue and profit. These results will go a long way towards regaining the trust of Wall Street."
Haris Anwar, an analyst at Investing.com, added that with the latest Q4 results, the worst is over for Facebook. He explained that the growth only proved that the company's ad business and user engagement were definitely not affected by the negative scandals at all.
Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, also said in a statement, "Our community and business continue to grow. We've fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues and we're investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect."
Facebook experienced a difficult year in 2018 due to multiple scandals and a steady stream of negative reports and this was why many analysts deduced that its revenue will not go over its previous records. In any case, the social media giant was heavily criticized for its privacy and user-safety issues such as the high-profile case of the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
This scandal was widely reported and privacy in Facebook was questioned by the state as well. The breach allowed hackers to steal around 50 million profiles that were allegedly used to disseminate hate speech in Myanmar.
In conclusion, regardless of how people see Facebook, either bad or good, it seems that the company can overcome any crisis and will still do well in the end. With the Q4 results, Facebook remained strong and negativity doesn't hurt its bottom line.
