Facebook’s growth is slowing, adding pressure to a company facing more restrictive privacy regulations and continued scrutiny from global lawmakers and antitrust officials. The world’s biggest social-media company reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $21.1 billion (€19.18 billion), boosted by ads on Instagram and in video. The 25 per cent increase from the period a year earlier was the slowest-ever quarterly sales growth for the company, though it topped analysts’ average estimate of $20.9 billion. What Facebook “has to grapple with is a rising cost framework while each incremental dollar of revenue growth gets tougher,” said James Cakmak, a partner at Clockwise Capital. Expenses rose 34 per cent to $12.2 billion during 2019, the California-based company said on Wednesday in a statement.

Source: The Irish Times January 29, 2020 22:02 UTC