I commented after the IOS14 stuff that FB revenue would obviously go up in Q3 as it has every quarter for years, to some incredulity on HN <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27845536" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27845536</a>.<p>As always, FB keeps on trucking.
Interesting that Apple in April rolled out privacy prompts[1] that Facebook complained about (and tried to persuade public opinion with a full-page ad in December 2020) ... and yet it didn't seem to slow down Facebook's numbers by much:<p><pre><code> 2021-09 $28.2b revenue, $9.1b income +17%
2020-09 $21.2b revenue, $7.8b income
</code></pre>
Possibilities:<p>- ads shown to iPhone FB users smaller piece of revenue pie than Android FB users<p>- advertisers keep spending the same amount (or more) even though they have less info because of less tracking of Apple users to correlate with dollars spent<p>People keep saying FB is in trouble but it doesn't matter if it's the leaked research about emotional manipulation, or the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or extra Apple privacy features. The revenue keeps coming in and growing. Who thinks all of today's press about the recent whistleblowers will have any effect on next year's numbers?<p>[1] 96% of iOS users opt out of app tracking: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=facebook+apple+opt-in+privacy+users+96+percent" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=facebook+apple+opt-in+privac...</a>
Their investor call was a lot more interesting than the numbers themselves. Facebook all but confirmed TikTok as an existential threat, and is spending billions over the next few years to retool their product line to focus on "young adults".<p>Metaverse came up as well, of course, and I still don't think anyone knows what that actually means.
Interesting commentary on the 'metaverse'<p><i>>Starting with our results for the fourth quarter of 2021, we plan to break out Facebook Reality Labs, or FRL, as a separate reporting segment. As we have discussed, we are dedicating significant resources toward our augmented and virtual reality products and services</i><p><i>>We expect our investment in Facebook Reality Labs to reduce our overall operating profit in 2021 by approximately $10 billion. We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years.</i>
The Tl;dr<p>Facebook reports Q3 revenue up 35% YoY to $29.0B, profit of $9.2B, up 17% YoY, DAUs up 6% to 1.93B, headcount up 20% to 68,177, and ups share buybacks by $50B
I loathe Fb as much as anyone, but if you're just looking to make money their stock is the biggest 'buy' on Earth. Their numbers only get better in the face of bad news, they've barely started tapping the potential revenue from Ig, and they haven't even begun to monetize Whatsapp.