Revenue from online ads reached $ 25.4 billion, up approximately 46% from the same quarter last year. The number of people using the social network monthly has jumped 10% to 2.85 billion, the Silicon Valley company explained. Earnings beat market expectations, causing stocks to jump 5.8% in after hours trading. The social network and its “family” of services including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger ended March with 3.45 billion total monthly users, up 15% from a year earlier. Facebook’s profits have come as regulators in the United States and abroad threaten interventions to curb internet giants they fear have become too powerful.
Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are among the tech titans who have thrived even more with the outbreak of the pandemic. The company explained that the revenue from the announcements in the quarter was driven by a 30% increase in the price and a 12% increase in the number. Online ads are served by automated platforms that conduct auctions in real time, which means that competition to get marketing messages in front of Facebook users drives prices up. “We expect the increase in ad revenue to continue to be driven primarily by price during the remainder of 2021,” Facebook said. However, the company warned it expects “ad targeting challenges to increase” in the course of 2021 due to regulation, in addition to privacy changes made in the latest version of Apple’s mobile device operating system.