Facebook collapses on the stock market, after repeated scandals

The title Facebook plunged 24 % Wednesday, July 25 after the close on Wall Street, a collapse that has melted the market capitalization of the group of about 150 billion dollars (128 billion euros) in less than two hours. Overwhelmed by the controversy of recent months, the social network has disappointed in the second quarter, in terms of users and turnover, and warned that the slowdown would continue.

The leaders of the group warned during a conference call that these growth-slowing trends are expected to continue in the second half of the year, magnifying the decline in the title. "This is a crucial year" for Facebook, commented his boss Mark Zuckerberg

Results worse than expected

Disinformation, political manipulations from Russian, management of personal data: Facebook is in fact repeatedly controversial, bad for its image and likely to cool the public and advertisers.

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Facebook had as of June 30 only 2.23 billion monthly active users (+ 11%), less than the 2.25 billion anticipated by the markets, who scrutinized any sign of weakness of the titan. Disappointment also about the number of daily active users, which was 1.47 billion (+ 11%) when the markets expected 1.49 billion. Mark Zuckerberg explained that the number of users had suffered in particular from the implementation of the general data protection regulations that came into effect in May in the European Union and which reinforces the rights of users.

The number of users business, consisting almost solely of advertising revenue from the site, also disappointed, to 13.23 billion (+ 42%), less than the 13.36 billion expected by badysts. Facebook, however, saw its net profit jump by 31% to $ 5.1 billion, a little better than expected.

Mbadive investments on security

The group also saw its expenses, partly due to need to better control what goes on the network, grow 50% to 7.4 billion. The trend should continue, warned the group. "We invest so much in our security systems that it will start to affect our profitability, we are starting to see it this quarter" badured Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook tries indeed by all ways to improve its image and not look at the expense, especially since the scandal resounding around Cambridge Analytica. This British data badytics firm had retrieved information on tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent, before working for Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.

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This scandal or the foreign interference in the elections is worth the social network complaints and investigations worldwide and Mr. Zuckerberg had to explain at length to the American and European parliamentarians. The latest controversy dates back to last week, when Mark Zuckerberg was violently criticized for his refusal to ban social denials.