MUMBAI: Facebook beat analysts’ expectations in the second quarter, posting $16.9 billion in revenue with money from advertising pegged at $16.62 billion. The result came after hours aftee Facebook struck a $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission following the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal. The social media giant recorded a $2 billion charge in the quarter tied to the FTC settlement while it previously set aside $3 billion.
The social media giant’s earnings per share rose to $1.99 cents in the quarter and monthly active users across its family of services, which includes Instagram and Whatsapp, were 2.41 billion as of 30 June 2019, an 8 per cent increase year-on-year. Moreover, daily active users also saw an increase of 8 per cent reaching 1.59 billion on average for June 2019.
In addition, the company estimates that more than 2.1 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger every day on average and more than 2.7 billion people use at least one of the company’s family of services each month.
“In July 2019, we entered into a settlement and modified consent order to resolve the inquiry of the FTC into our platform and user data practices. Among other matters, our settlement with the FTC requires us to pay a penalty of $5 billion and to significantly enhance our practices and processes for privacy compliance and oversight,” the company highlighted.
“In particular, we have agreed to implement a comprehensive expansion of our privacy program, including substantial management and board of directors oversight, stringent operational requirements and reporting obligations, and a process to regularly certify our compliance with the privacy program to the FTC. In the second quarter of 2019, we recorded an additional $2 billion accrual in connection with our settlement with the FTC, which is included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities on our condensed consolidated balance sheet,” it added.
Facebook mentioned that the company was informed by the FTC in June that it had opened an antitrust investigation of its company. It also noted that the online technology industry and the company have received increased regulatory scrutiny in the past quarter. Moreover, the Department of Justice announced in July that it will begin an antitrust review of the market-leading online platform.
