Zuckerberg s ineptitude did not hurt Facebook. The company s financial results prove this

It's a bit sad, and a little scary, that after a nightmare full of mishaps and scandals, Facebook boasts of excellent financial results.

Facebook presented the results for the fourth quarter and the whole year 2018. They were marked by increases in all areas. The enterprise managed by Marek Zuckerberg seemed to be resistant to further hurricanes. Tsunami, which was the scandal of Cambridge Analytica , also had to be overestimated, since it did not significantly affect the condition of the company.

Facebook recorded USD 55.8 billion. income in 2018. It was by 38 percent. more than in 2017. The fourth quarter closed with a revenue of USD 16.9 billion, which was in turn by 30 percent. higher than in the corresponding period of the previous year. For over 98% the final amount corresponded to advertising revenue. Net profit in the last quarter was USD 6.8 billion, and in the whole year USD 22.1 billion. For comparison, in 2017 Facebook earned $ 15.9 billion. Average revenue per user was globally $ 7.37. towards $ 6.09 in the previous quarter.

Traditionally, I will show my favorite slide from the Facebook presentation, which graphically visualizes the sources of the company's revenues and thus helps to understand the context of its activity. Below, we can see the advertising part (navy blue color).

We have behind this boring part of the quarterly and annual report for the casual user. After a difficult year, the media clamor, Facebook managers' performances in front of government institutions, one could assume that the service is at least inferior to users. However, the premise for this was not wishful thinking, but the results from the previous quarter , when it was possible to observe an unfavorable change in the growth rate of users.

In its reports, Facebook uses two measures - the number of active users per day and per month. In the last quarter, the website recorded 1.52 billion users a day - it is only 1.87 percent. more than in the previous quarter. The monthly number of active users was 2.32 billion users (2.27 in the previous quarter), which gives 2.15 percent. growth.

The increases, we can say, are symbolic, but it is worth noting that the increase in active users in the fourth quarter is still higher than in the third quarter (2.15% compared to 1.66%).

What do Facebook's results tell us?

I have mentioned pious wishes above. The statement that "Facebook ends" could have been heard many times over the past year. Although I myself belong to the critics of Marek Zuckerberg's actions, I am not willing to easily write off a company whose main service uses 1.5 billion users a day and 2.3 billion a month.

Yes, the media - including Spider's Web - are trumpeting about the next scandals. They write about Facebook's spills and bugs, but to the statistical user this information is distorted by the conviction that all these scandals do not concern him. The website has built such a powerful user base that even if we could miraculously count the discouraged, disgusted or finally pissed off actions of the company, they will constitute a margin of all users of Facebook services.

Zuckerberg has set four priorities for 2019 . This is another promise of sanitation after stormy 2018 . First (and very generally), the head of Facebook wants to make progress in combating the problems that have touched - the attention - the Internet and his company. Second, it intends to implement improvements to "improve everyday life". Thirdly, he wants to support business, mainly small businesses, because in his opinion Facebook contributes to improving their condition, giving tools to reach customers. Fourthly, finally, it announces more transparency in informing about the activities of his company.

It is easy to deduce from the above short litany: Zuckerberg will need even more data to implement the second and third points.

Finally, you can cynically ask, in the context of the title statement about the ineptitude of the Facebook boss, is it really possible to talk about it, if the results are so good? Despite the adversities and unfavorable media, Zuckerberg built a powerful empire, resistant to earthquakes and hurricanes. What seemingly looks like incompetence was simply a cold calculation

Zuckerberg's ineptitude did not hurt Facebook. The company's financial results prove this