Facebook grows to 2.5 billion users
Despite all the criticism, Facebook continues to gain new users and attract more advertising revenue. Now founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to take a more aggressive approach to defending the online network's position. He says he doesn't want to be liked, but rather understood.
Facebook reached the 2.5 billion active user mark last quarter and continues to grow rapidly. But costs are also rising, partly because the online network needs more and more employees. In addition, data protection regulations such as the GDPR are making the advertising business more difficult.
In the final quarter of 2019, sales rose by a quarter year-on-year to just over 21 billion dollars. At the same time, however, profits increased by a comparatively moderate seven percent to 7.35 billion dollars. Profit growth was slower than investors are used to from Facebook. The stock sank more than seven percent in after-hours U.S. trading on Wednesday.
Class action lawsuit settled
With the quarterly figures, Facebook also announced a $550 million payment in the U.S. state of Illinois to settle a consumer class action lawsuit over the facial recognition feature on the platform. The plaintiffs had accused Facebook of violating local laws by collecting biometric data without users' knowledge. The feature suggests names of Facebook friends to tag in photos.
Facebook's founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced he wants to be more aggressive about the online network's positions. "My goal for the next decade is not to be liked, but to be understood," he said in a conference call with analysts. "For you to gain trust, people need to know what you stand for."
Facebook, for example, wants to strengthen its defense of freedom of speech, encryption and its advertising-based business model. Among other things, the online network is accused of collecting too much data for the personalization of ads and of wanting to keep users on the platform longer in order to show them more advertising.
More revenue with US users
In the U.S., Facebook made an average revenue per user of $41.41 last quarter, almost exclusively from advertising. That was a significant jump from $34.55 three months earlier. In Europe, average revenue per user was just $13.21. However, it was closer to the U.S. level in Western Europe, said chief financial officer David Wehner. At the same time, Facebook acknowledged that rules such as the European General Data Protection Regulation or the similar new privacy law in California made it more difficult in part to personalize ads and measure their effectiveness.
The number of users active at least once a month reached 2.5 billion after an increase of 50 million within three months. In the past quarter, 1.66 billion users came to Facebook every day. Together with other apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp, the Group has 2.89 billion monthly users. (SDA)
