Facebook Reports Record Profit

Investors were undeterred by Facebook’s latest privacy mishaps, and sent the company’s share price up around 11% in after-hours trading following news of a substantial earnings beat.

According to Variety, Facebook generated revenue of $16.9 billion during the holiday quarter, compared to close to $13 billion during the same time a year ago. Net income was $6.9 billion, compared to $4.3 billion in Q4 of 2017. This translates to earnings per share of $2.38.

Analysts had expected revenue of $16.4 billion, and earnings per share of $2.19.

“Our community and business continue to grow,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “We’ve fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we’re investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect.”

Facebook grew its number of daily active users to 1.523 billion for the quarter, up from 1.4 billion in Q4 of 2017. Notably, the company also managed to grow it’s North American user base for the first time in 2018, from 185 million daily actives in Q3 to 186 million in Q4. DAUs in Europe returned to 282 million, after slumping to a low of 278 million in Q3.

CNBC Graphic

The company also said that around 2.7 billion people use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger every month, with 2 billion people using at least one of those apps every day. Chief financial officer David Wehner said that the company would eventually shift to only disclose these aggregate numbers, and not break out the usage of Facebook’s core app anymore.

Facebook still makes most of its money with advertising, but the company saw its non-advertising income increase notably, especially in North America, where it generated $187 million from “payments & other fees,” compared to  $121 million in Q4 of 2017.