Technology

Posted on April 26, 2018 by staff

Facebook sales up 50 per cent despite data scandal

Technology

The Cambridge Analytica scandal has not affected Facebook’s financial performance after the social media giant announced an increase in sales of almost 50 per cent.

Facebook grew year-on-year revenue in the first three months of the year to $11.9 billion, up from $8bn in 2017, with $11.7bn coming from advertising revenue.

Profits were also up, reaching $4.9bn compared to $3bn last year.

In March Facebook confirmed that data from as many as 87m profiles had been harvested by Cambridge Analytica without consent, including more one million British profiles.

It has since tightened its privacy controls. Following the results, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg vowed to take “a broader view of our responsibility”.

“Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018,” he said.

“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.”

Despite social media campaigns such as #deletefacebook, the firm also saw a rise in daily active users to 1.45bn and monthly active users to 2.2bn, an increase in both of 13 per cent from Q1 2017.