The Cambridge Analytica, where a UK data firm allegedly leaked information on millions of Facebook users, may have brought the company down, but that's not particularly evident when you look at its latest earnings. In fact, if you look at its earnings alone, it seems like the scandal actually helped the company.
The company reported profits of $11.97 billion for the first quarter of 2018, beating Wall Street expectations and proving that advertisers are not deterred by the social network's problems.
“Despite facing significant challenges, our community and business got off to a strong start in 2018,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Responding during his Capitol Hill hearing earlier in April, Zuckerberg noted that Facebook has “a responsibility to keep the community safe,” and acknowledged that the company has not done enough to prevent the platform’s tools from being hacked.
“But we also have a responsibility to keep moving forward,” he said. And in this, Facebook is more dominant than ever. In addition to a 50% increase in revenue compared to last year, user growth touched 13%, with Facebook reporting 2.2 billion monthly active users.
And, in case you're wondering if advertisers have left Facebook after recent events, COO Sheryl Sandberg confirmed that the company hasn't seen a "significant trend" of advertisers leaving.
But what about recent speculation that Facebook might stop supporting ads and become a paid service? Zuckerberg doesn't seem to be endorsing that idea.
“Ads are a great business model that aligns with our mission… it’s something that all of us at Facebook are very proud of and believe is the right way to build a service,” he said.
On the stock market, Facebook's stock recently rose by more than 7 percent, which also indicates the company's upward trajectory.
