Facebook Inc on Wednesday reported a sharp jump in profit in the past quarter, backed by gains in its user base and strong ad growth as the social network appeared to see no impact from a controversy over privacy.
Profit in the first quarter leapt 63 percent from a year ago to US$5 billion and total revenue increased 49 percent to US$11.97 billion, Facebook said in an earnings update, which topped most analyst forecasts.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who has spent most of the past month on the fallout from the revelations on the hijacking of personal data by a political firm, sought to reassure investors about the company’s future despite the privacy row that has sparked investigations on both sides of the Atlantic.
Photo: Reuters
“Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018,” Zuckerberg said. “We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good, but we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities and bring the world closer together.”
Facebook shares climbed more than 6.9 percent to US$170.75 in after-hours trades that followed release of the earnings figures.
The report showed the number of people using Facebook monthly rose 13 percent from last year to 2.2 billion as of the end of last month, despite concerns that users would abandon the network following the misuse of data by Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook said another measure, daily active users, was up in all regions, including the US and Europe.
“At first look, we would characterize [these] results as a relief and as a sign that so far the damage from Cambridge appears contained, although this will be a long three to six months ahead to steer through this storm,” GHB Insights analyst Daniel Ives said in a research note.
Although the impact of the scandal, which broke in the middle of last month, was unlikely to be reflected in the first quarter, the early signs suggested users and advertisers would remain.
“Facebook is so large that it would take a lot of user defections to make a difference,” eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a recent report.
However, Williamson said some of Facebook’s momentum was already fading due to other factors, such as disinformation, social media fatigue and new platforms attracting young people.
“Facebook has already essentially maxed out its penetration in the US,” she said.
Facebook also announced that its board of directors had authorized the buyback of an additional US$9 billion worth of shares, raising its repurchase plan to US$15 billion.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last