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Facebook logo on a smartphone: profit jump by 53 percent
Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP
Facebook is one of the beneficiaries of the corona crisis.
An advantage for the social network: In view of the closed shops, even more companies put their advertising on the Internet in order to attract customers online during the Christmas business.
Sales climbed 33 percent in the fourth quarter to just under 28.1 billion dollars, as the world's largest Internet network announced on Wednesday after the US market closed - the company makes around 97 percent of sales with advertisements.
This is significantly more than expected by analysts.
The profit even climbed 53 percent to $ 11.22 billion.
The quarterly figures also reflect the success of the new focus on online trading.
With offers such as Instagram Shopping or Facebook Marketplace, the US group founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 wants to benefit from the fact that more and more people are shopping online during the crisis.
In addition, purchase options within apps have recently been added.
The network, which includes the messenger WhatsApp and the photo platform Instagram in addition to the platform of the same name, now has 2.8 billion active users per month.
This means that more than every third resident in the world is registered with the US group.
Zuckerberg has announced new products for the current year.
However, Facebook also has to deal with some problems.
This includes, on the one hand, the role of social media in the storming of the US Capitol, the effects of the ban of former US President Donald Trump and, on the other hand, competition lawsuits and the dispute with Apple over the new operating system and stricter data protection rules.
Facebook was the first of the large US technology companies that generate the majority of their income with advertising to provide an insight into the past quarter.
Alphabet, Twitter, Snap and Pinterest will follow in the next few days.
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