Facebook Q2 misses revenue estimates as user growth stalls
Facebook reported second quarter financial results that missed revenue estimates, fueling concerns about user engagement and ad supply growth in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Featured
Facebook disclosed the Cambridge Analytica data fiasco in mid-March, with only two weeks left in the first quarter. As a result, its Q1 report was remarkably strong, but we're now getting a fuller picture of how the event impacted user engagement.
The social networking giant now stands at more than 2.23 billion monthly active users, compared to 2.25 billion analysts expected. Daily active users (DAUs) reached 1.47 billion, slightly below the 1.49 billion expected.
In the US and Canada, Facebook user growth was flat quarter over quarter, remaining at 185 million DAUs. The same goes with MAUs, with the count hovering at 241 million.
However, Facebook disclosed a new statistic this quarter, revealing for the first time the total number of people using one of its apps, be it Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger. On a call with analysts, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that number is 2.5 billion.
"This number better reflects our community for a couple of reasons," Zuckerberg said. "First, it refers to individual people rather than active accounts, so it excludes when people have multiple active accounts on a single app. And second, it reflects that many people use more than one of our services."
The other key metric from Facebook's Q2 report is how much money it made from advertising. The company said total ad revenue rose 42 percent from a year ago to $13 billion. Last quarter, with the Cambridge Analytics scandal still top of mind, Facebook's ad revenue came in at $11.79 billion.
Facebook didn't break out numbers for mobile users, but the mobile segment was solid in terms of advertising, representing 91 percent of all ad revenue for the quarter.
As for the rest of the numbers, the tech giant reported a net income of $5.1 billion, with non-GAAP earnings of $1.74 per share on revenue of $13.23 billion, up 42 precent from last year.
Wall Street was looking for earnings of $1.72 per share with $13.33 billion in revenue.
By region, North America still accounts for 47 percent of Facebook's revenue.
Facebook's stock dropped more than 8 percent in after-hours trading.