Facebook's Q4 Revenues Hit $21 Billion, Daily Users Up 9%


Despite continuing to serve as a lightning rod for all manner of criticism and regulatory threats, Facebook again posted better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday. 

During the fourth quarter, the tech titan reported revenue of about $21 billion, which was up 25%, year-over-year.

Over the past year, the company also saw its user base continue to grow at a respectable clip. In December, average daily active users (DAUs) reached 1.66 billion, which was up 9%, year-over-year.

As of December 31, monthly active users (MAUs) hit 2.5 billion, which was up 8%, year-over-year.

Analysts remain impressed by Facebook’s ability to perform well in the face of so many obstacles.

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

“Despite all the concerns that have been swirling around the company in the past two years, it beat expectations on revenue, and it demonstrated continued growth in its user base,” Williamson said.

Facebook on Wednesday also reported on its “family metrics,” which represent estimates of the underlying number of unique users visiting one or more of its properties, including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and its flagship social network.

In December, average “family” daily active users reached 2.26 billion, which represented an increase of 11% year-over-year. As of December 31, Facebook’s “family” monthly active users totally 2.89 billion, which was up 9%, year-over-year.

For his part, Mark Zuckerberg seemed happy with Facebook’s performance.

“We had a good quarter and a strong end to the year as our community and business continue to grow,” Facebook’s cofounder-CEO stated.

This part quarter, Facebook had no shortage of detractors.

Earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Facebook, and what she considers to be its “shameful” business practices.  

“They have been very abusive of the great opportunity that technology has given them,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) told members of the press. “They intend to be accomplices in misleading the American people.”

Pelosi’s comments came about a week after Facebook stood by its controversial decision not to block political ads containing false and misleading information.

Meanwhile, Forrester Research recently named Facebook as one of most poorly managed brands of 2019. In part, this was due to the company’s continued unwillingness to take responsibility for its misuse of user data following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

This massive shirking of responsibility “hemorrhaged the brand’s public trust,” in the words of Dipanjan Chatterjee, principal analyst at Forrester and lead author of the annual brand review.

“The biggest miss was empathy,” Chatterjee said of Facebook. “This is a brand that’s been out of touch and uncaring and has lacked the ability and willingness to listen.”
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