As controversy rises, Facebook still seems to click | Technology



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FAcebook is expected to announce Wednesday its second-most profitable second quarter in its history, even after a $ 5 billion fine and an unprecedented level of control over its plan to create a new global currency.

While regulatory struggles and digital money plans have grabbed the spotlight in recent weeks, investors and badysts remain confident that the social media giant can continue to grow.

The Facebook share price has risen more than 50% this year, more than double the rate of growth of the broader Nasdaq composite index. Investors were particularly sensitive to the unpleasant news: in April, they dismissed the $ 5 billion US Trade Commission of the United States, victim of privacy violations. Shares are approximately 8% higher than their level of March 16, 2018, on the eve of Observer the revelations that Cambridge Analytica has collected millions of user profiles to target them with political ads.

Society does not seem to have been affected by the brutal reaction against Libra, the digital currency it hopes to launch around the world. Regulators and politicians – candidates for the US Democratic presidency to the president of the Bank of England, Mark Carney – have promised to make Libra one of the most watched technology launches in the world. ;history.

Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the company 15 years ago, seems to be so preoccupied with the tide of controversy that he has launched a series of one-hour podcasts on topics such as freedom of speech. Expression, democracy and law.

Still, despite the setbacks, investors should focus on the more mundane realities of user growth and revenue when Facebook will reveal the results after the market closes on Wednesday.

The California-based company is expected to report a $ 5.4 billion profit for the quarter ending in June, according to an average of estimates gathered by S & P Global Market Intelligence. If badysts were right, this would be the second best quarter of all time recorded by Facebook, beaten by record earnings of $ 6.88 billion in the last quarter of 2018.

With these results, Facebook's revenue growth of $ 16.6 billion, up 30% year-over-year, appeased investors who had been frightened by research suggesting that the US and US markets could reach the saturation point. Facebook estimates to have two billion daily active users of at least one of its "families" of applications: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

Despite the strength and fury it faces in the political arena, Facebook's potential to continue to reach new users in emerging markets such as India has boosted its valuation to more than $ 570 billion in recent days, thus returning to the $ 624 billion mark on the high seas. There is a year. Analysts will be looking for revenue growth per user in growing markets.

It may not be all that simple. The shock potential was highlighted last week by Netflix, after the streaming service, also listed with Facebook on Nasdaq, did not surpbad its own forecasts for new subscribers, according to Alex DeGroote, an independent media badyst.

"Investors can now think," We had a great performance; press the button [to sell] and take stock, "he said.

Facebook executives urged the market to understand that 2019 is a year of transition, with lower revenues and higher expenses, as the company shifts to more visual advertising formats, such as its features. "Histories" of Snapchat and devotes more money to human publishers to fight against false information.

"They [tech firms] hit the speed bumps, and sometimes that can be quite steep, "said DeGroote.

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