Facebook warns of a slowdown in its growth – The Figaro

The first social network in the world that still displays this year a turnover and profit above expectations, warns its shareholders that it will significantly increase its investment next year.

From our correspondent in Washington

Mark Zuckerberg has of course always smile. For the sixth consecutive quarter, the company he heads, appear not only in sales but also to higher profits forecasts published by the analysts. In contrast to the first social network in the world warned its shareholders against a downturn “significant” growth next year, because Facebook does not want to increase the volume of advertisements inserted in the “news feeds” of its users. In addition, David Wehner, the Chief financial officer of the firm, Menlo Park (California), provides “a substantial increase in investment spending”: Facebook recovery a wave of recruitment of engineers and account set-up of new centers of data processing. This explains the negative market reaction to announcements of results yet good.

After the close of the Nasdaq on the otc market, on Wednesday evening, the course of Facebook plunged 7%. Facebook is always driven by the success of the advertising designed for smartphones and tablets. The company reported a jump of 55, 8% of its quarterly revenue, to more than $ 7 billion. At the same time the profits of the first social network climb to $ 891 million to 2.37 billion dollars.

Facebook is a lot of emphasis on the video

For those who are interested in the medium and long term, the reasons to be confident in the future of Facebook do not lack. The dominant position of the california-based company on the advertising market on the mobile terminal is confirmed. It absorbs with Google for the largest share of the market growth of digital advertising. 84% of its advertising revenues come from mobile, compared to 78% last year at the same time. In addition to the growing popularity of Facebook is true. The network counts now 1,79 billion monthly active users, 16% higher than a year ago. By comparison, Twitter, the growth of which reached the ceiling, just to drain more than 313 million monthly users. To maintain its growth, insolent, Facebook is a lot of emphasis on the video. Its leaders are convinced that within five years, most of the people visit online will be in the form of videos.

Facebook account be among the first to drain a share of advertising budgets that to this day are allocated to television channels. Nothing that the United States, this market exceeds $ 70 billion. In the meantime the “family of apps” from Facebook, with Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger, is expected to contribute increasingly to the profits of the group. David Wehner refuses to give details for now, but says that the advertising revenue generated by Instagram are growing faster than that of the main application Facebook.