臉書(FB)獲利不差，但會員增長不如預期，盤後跌近20%

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Facebook Inc. stock plunged as much as 23% in the extended session Wednesday after the social-media giant missed analyst expectations for the top line and user growth — which was flat in the U.S. and Canada compared with the first quarter — but beat on the bottom line.

In the company’s earnings call with investors, Chief Financial Officer David Wehner disclosed that the social-media giant expects the revenue slowdown to continue. “Our total revenue growth rates will continue to decelerate in the second half of 2018, and we expect our revenue growth rates to decline by high single-digit percentages from prior quarters sequentially in both Q3 and Q4,” he said on the conference call. Wehner also said Facebook still expects expenses to grow 50% to 60% from last year.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company reported $5.12 billion in net income for the quarter, which amounts to $1.74 a share, widening from $3.89 billion or $1.32 a share in the year-ago period. The bottom-line beat was above analysts’ average estimate of $1.71 a share.

                               
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“While the knee-jerk reaction will be negative on these mixed results, especially given the meteoric rise in shares from the March lows,” wrote GBH Insights head of technology research Daniel Ives, “we ultimately believe the advertising revenues and underlying [monthly/daily active user] metrics were ‘good enough’ and show the worries of a massive fundamental and user deterioration at Facebook post-Cambridge was more bark than bite at this point.”

But Facebook FB, +1.32%  recorded sales below analyst models. The company’s top line was $13.04 billion, weaker than $13.34 billion analysts expected, suggesting that the world’s largest social network has begun to feel some of the effects of the controversies that have battered it during the quarter. Facebook also missed its user growth expectations: The company reported 1.47 billion daily active users, while Wall Street expected 1.49 billion; it logged 2.23 billion monthly active users, as analysts expected 2.25 billion.

In the U.S. and Canada, Facebook’s most valuable geographic region, daily active user growth was flat at 185 million compared with the first quarter, the company said. Monthly active users also didn’t grow compared to the first quarter and remained steady at 241 million in the U.S. and Canada. Facebook members in those countries are worth $25.43 compared to Europe’s $8.76 per user, and the worldwide average of $5.97 per member.

[size=0.85]The European user count slowed down too: Facebook said it had 376 million monthly users, compared with 377 million in the first quarter and 360 million in the year-earlier period. Monthly active users shrank from the first quarter to 279 million from 282 million in Europe.

“GDPR was an important moment for our industry,” Zuckerberg said on the call. “We did see a decline in monthly actives in Europe, down by about 1 million people as a result, and at the same time, it was encouraging to see the vast majority of people affirm that though want us to use context, including from web sites this they visit, to make our ads more relevant and improve their overall product experience.”

During the second quarter, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect, which was designed to curtail the power of tech titans such as Facebook and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +1.41% GOOG, +1.25%  as well as protecting the privacy of its citizens. Analysts had speculated that the GDPR might actually benefit giants such as Facebook and Alphabet because they would be able to implement the new requirements, whereas smaller companies may have run into challenges.

But on the earnings call, executives said that the GDPR was responsible for the decline in European user growth.

Facebook reported Payments and Other Fee revenue of $193 million up from $157 million in the year-ago quarter. The June quarter included sales of its Oculus Go virtual reality headset, a cheap, standalone version of its Oculus Rift hardware that’s designed to work along side a gaming computer, as well as other products such as Marketplace.

On its fourth-quarter call earlier this year, executives said that “more than 700 million people each month now come to Facebook to buy and sell things” and that it launched the product in 41 countries throughout 2017.

In the past, Zuckerberg has said Facebook plans to hire 20,000 people to deal with safety and security on the site; the company on Wednesday disclosed that it employed 30,275 people, a 47% increase over the year-earlier period.

“But as I’ve said on past calls, we’re investing so much in security that it will significantly impact our profitability,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re starting to see that this quarter.”

Facebook stock has gained 23% this year, as the S&P 500 index  SPX, +0.91%  rose 5.5%.

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不少人都等明天臉書股價下跌時搶買。