April 26 (UPI) — Facebook’s first-quarter earnings results showed a 50 percent increase in revenue over last year despite recent controversies over the company’s practices.
But the quarter ended on March 31 and doesn’t reflect any potential fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved the selling of personal data taken from people without their permission.
Nonetheless, it was a strong quarter for the social media giant. Compared to the first quarter of 2017, Facebook’s advertising revenue — which accounts for more than 95 percent of the company’s revenue total — increased by 50 percent from $7.9 billion to $11.8 billion. Net income increased by 63 percent to $5 billion and earnings per share also increased by 63 percent to $1.69.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who spent two days in front of a congressional panel to answer questions about his company’s data collecting practices, praised the results but pointed to the need for the company to regain trust from consumers.
“Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018,” Zuckerberg said in a statement.
“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 also continues to add users, adding 70 million monthly users during the first three months of 2018. It now has an overall user base of more than 2.2 billion.
