Facebook Reports Slower Growth in Q2; Mark Zuckerberg Loses $16.8 Billion as Shares Slide

The second quarter of 2018 has not been the best ever for Facebook. But that was perhaps expected, in the aftermath of the data privacy scandal and the constant debate about the company’s moderation policies for content posted on the social network. The data released by Facebook in the Q2 2018 earnings call indicates that even though revenue increased 42 percent to $13.2 billion, it was still lesser than the Wall Street estimates of $13.3 billion. This is the first time in 3 years that Facebook did not match or exceed the market expectations in a quarter.

Make no doubt, a 42 percent growth figure is still extremely robust, and that is coupled with an 11 percent year-over-year growth in monthly and daily active users. At present, Facebook has 1.47 billion daily active users and 2.23 billion monthly active users. Mobile advertising revenue is also up, and now represents 91% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2018, which is up from approximately 87% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2017.

However, even these impressive numbers are not enough for Facebook. In the aftermath of the earnings call, the company’s shared slid by more than 20 percent, and that means CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost as much as $16.8 billion after the late trading.

Prior to the Q2 2018 earnings call, Facebook seemed to have been largely unaffected in its ability to make money and retain subscribers, even after the data privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, the subsequent changes to the News Feed after user backlash and also the controversy surrounding the social network’s ability to moderate content such as fake news and hate speech. Facebook also confirmed that Facebook lost as many as 1 million accounts in Europe, due to compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations.