Facebook users flock to the social network even as scandals grow

[The AchieVer]

Facebook users flock to the social network even as scandals grow

CEO Mark Zuckerberg also oversaw a jump in sales and profit.

 

Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. 

Facebook said Wednesday it continued to gain users, a bit of good news for the scandal-plagued social network which started the day with a fight with iPhone maker Apple.

Monthly active users rose 9 percent year-over-year to 2.32 billion in the fourth quarter, which ended on Dec. 31. User growth is crucial for Facebook, which makes it money by selling advertising that's targeted to user interests. 

 

The rise in users comes as the company faced yet another black eye. Overnight, Apple blocked a research app the social network was distributing to iPhone users after it was discovered Facebook had sidestepped the review process. The Facebook Research app paid users between the ages of 13 to 35 up to $20 per month in exchange for letting Facebook access a user's phone and web activity, including personal messages.

The scrape with Apple comes as Facebook, which still posted a 61 percent rise in profits, faces the most serious crisis in its 15-year history. The leadership of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg has been called into question, particularly after The New York Times reported the executives ignored warnings and deflected blame as scandals mounted. The company has also earned criticism for reportedly giving other tech companies greater access to user data than was previously disclosed. And Facebook's image wasn't helped by a software bug that exposed the photos of up to 6.8 million people to third-party app developers. 

 

On Wednesday, Facebook reported that its revenue grew by 30 percent to $16.9 billion in the fourth quarter, beating the $16.3 billion that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected.

 

 

Source

[Mutton]

The old adage: "All advertising is good advertising."

 

People are stupid.