Facebook shares hit an all-time of $186.10 in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company’s earnings report shattered expectations — the same day that…
Facebook shares hit an all-time of $186.10 in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company’s earnings report shattered expectations — the same day that the social network’s general counsel testified on Capitol Hill about the site’s questionable role during the 2016 election.
However, shares later dipped 1.7 percent to $179.50 in after hours trading after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would sacrifice profitability in the near term to beef up security.
More people than ever are using Facebook, with the company reporting 1.37 billion daily active users and 2.07 billion monthly active users, up from 1.32 billion and 2.01 billion last quarter, respectively.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based tech titan’s revenue clocked in at $10.33 billion, beating Wall Street’s $9.84 billion estimate, and representing a nearly 50 percent jump in year-on-year growth.
The company’s official headcount is 23,165 — up 47 percent year-over-year.
Facebook also topped profit expectations, reporting $1.59 a share compared to the forecasted $1.28 a share, and surpassing last year’s mark by 77 percent.
In his statement to investors, however, CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned that such steep growth is unlikely to continue as the social network makes efforts to prevent abuse of its platform.
“We’re investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability,” Zuckerberg said. “Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”
Zuckerberg’s caution reflects the delicate spot the company has been in after it was discovered that the Russian government had used the platform to attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election.
In November 2016, Facebook’s 33-year-old CEO was famously dismissive of the idea that fake news on Facebook could have influenced the election, calling it “ a pretty crazy idea .”
A year later, however, the scope and scale of the Russian government’s misinformation campaign on Facebook is becoming clearer. Earlier this month, the social network turned over 3,000 Russia-linked ads to congressional investigators.
On the final day of Yom Kippur, Zuckerberg wrote a post asking Facebook users to forgive him for the way his work “was used to divide people rather than bring [them] together.”
Yesterday, Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch testified that the company will be doubling its 10,000-person safety and security staff by the end of 2018.
In a call with investors, Zuckerberg doubled down on the company’s commitment to eradicate misinformation on the platform.
“People do not want false news or hate speech or any of the bad content we’re talking about,” he said. “We’re going to invest both in people and technology to go after all different parts of this problem.”
