That annoying advert that you come across while scrolling on Facebook is bringing in big bucks for the social media giant.
In its release of financial results for the first quarter of 2019, Facebook’s advertising revenue stands at USD14.9 billion, translating to around Ksh1.5 trillion.
The figure is a 26% year on year rise, where Facebook had raked in around Ksh1.1 trillion from the first three months of 2018.
Of Facebook’s advertising revenue from Q1 of 2019, approximately 93% comes from mobile advertising, the company said in its financial results.
That means that mobile advertising could be bringing in around Ksh1.4 trillion.
With Kenya’s national budget for 2018 being approximately Ksh3 trillion, it means Facebook would at this rate finance the country with advertising revenue for six months.
The social media giant however saw a 51% drop in income from last year’s Q1, netting Ksh243 billion. Within the first three months of 2018, the firm had brought in Ksh506 billion.
Apart from slumping from the previous year’s reporting period, the decline saw Facebook record the lowest net income of any quarter over the past two years.
Facing a possible fine from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Facebook projects a loss of between Ksh304 billion and Ksh507 billion in diluted earnings per share.
The firm is facing a privacy investigation over the platform’s user data practices in the wake of Cambridge Analytica revelations last year.
“We estimate that the range of loss in this matter is $3.0bn to $5.0bn,” Facebook said. “The matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome.”
During the first three months of 2019, Facebook has faced increased scrutiny over data practices as well as come under fire for its handling of videos shared on its platform following the terrorist attack at mosques in New Zealand.
However, more and more people are still using Facebook and its related apps.
“There are now around 2.7 billion people using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger each month, and more than 2.1 billion people are using at least one every day,” said Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a conference call with investors.
Zuckerberg attributed the increase to the rise in popularity of the stories format, “with each of our three stories experiences having more than half a billion daily actives.”
