Facebook makes $ 6.1 billion quarterly profit

Facebook has gained users in the third quarter and earned a great deal. Net profit increased by 19 percent year-on-year to $ 6.1 billion, the company said. Sales climbed 29 percent to $ 17.7 billion driven by buoyant advertising revenue. Facebook clearly exceeded the expectations of analysts.

The number of monthly active users increased by eight percent to 2.45 billion. Advertising revenues shot up by 28 percent to just under $ 17.4 billion. That was more than expected by professionals. The cost increased by about 32 percent to 10.5 billion dollars. After the stock exchange, the price of the share initially increased significantly.

The Internet giant is currently under intense pressure - before the next US presidential election in 2020, there are again allegations that Facebook does not do enough against the propagation of propaganda and fake news.

In addition, Facebook's prestige project, the digital currency Libra, threatens to fail (read more about the background). More and more potential partners withdraw from the project.

The Group also continues to pursue the topic of data protection: Because of the Cambridge-Analytica scandal, the company has accepted a fine of around 580,000 euros this Wednesday in the UK. Privacy advocates considered it proven that the corporation had granted developers access to customer data without any legal basis. Management has already announced that new privacy measures would slow down sales growth and lead to significantly higher costs.