Facebook reports 4Q profit, user growth despite challenges!

Facebook had a strong fourth quarter as it made more money on advertising and added more users despite challenges around regulation, privacy and efforts to fight election interference.

Profit and revenue both handily surpassed Wall Street's expectations.

The company has had a rough couple of years and is under growing regulatory scrutiny around the world. In the U.S., it faces several government investigations for alleged anti-competitive behavior. Last August, it was fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations, the largest FTC fine ever for a tech company.
Amid ongoing criticism about how his company handles the private data of its users, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company was shifting course for a more "privacy-focused" future. This includes emphasizing small-group and private communication, though details are still scant.

It's not clear if this privacy focus will mean anything for how ads on Facebook are targeted, which has always been among the chief concerns for privacy advocates.

In any cases, users seem unfazed.

Facebook said that about 2.89 billion people use at least one of its services - Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger - each month. About 2.26 billion people use one every day. The Menlo Park, California, company said its main service had 2.5 billion monthly users at the end of the year, up 8 per cent from a year earlier.

"This is a company that has shown that it can withstand ongoing criticism of its practices and yet still pull out gains in both revenue and users," said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

Facebook said Wednesday it earned $7.35 billion, or $2.56 per share, up 7 per cent percent from $6.88 billion, or $2.38 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 25 per cent to $21.1 billion from $16.9 billion, the bulk of that from ads. Analysts were expecting earnings of $2.52 per share and revenue of $20.9 billion, according to FactSet.

Facebook's stock dropped more than six per cent in after-hours trading after the results came out. Some investors may be concerned about the company's growing expenses, while others could simply be cashing out following a record high for the stock earlier in the day.

- AP