SAN FRANCISCO - US social media giant Facebook on Wednesday reported better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter of 2019 as its quarterly revenue grew to $16.9 billion, up 28 percent year-over-year.
Facebook said the strong revenue growth from $13.2 billion last year was driven by a robust increase in advertising revenue, which also rose 28 percent to $16.6 billion, compared to $13 billion in the same period of last year.
The company has struck a 5-billion-dollar settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over a privacy breach that exposed the data of 87 million Facebook users to unauthorized access by a British consultancy firm in 2018.
The improper access to Facebook user data by Britain-based Cambridge Analytica led to the huge FTC penalty on the US social media behemoth, while the federal regulators asked Facebook to significantly enhance processes for privacy compliance and oversight.
Facebook's net income fell 49 percent to 2.6 billion dollars for the quarter ended on June 30, compared to the figure of $5.1 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
However, Facebook said its daily active users increased 8 percent year-over-year to 1.59 billion on average for June 2019, while its monthly active users were 2.41 billion as of June 30, 2019, also up 8 percent year-on-year.
Facebook said its mobile advertising revenue represented about 94 percent of total advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2019, up 3 percent over the same quarter of 2018.
It said its cash and cash equivalents, as well as marketable securities were 48.6 billion dollars at the end of the second quarter this year.
With a strong quarter and growing business and a user base, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the company is "investing in building stronger privacy protections for everyone and on delivering new experiences for the people who use our services."
Facebook is also the owner of two popular social media apps WhatsApp and Instagram. Its headcount rose 31 percent year-on-year to 39,651 as of June 30, 2019.