Facebook daily active users rose to 1.66 billion in Q4 2019, reports slowest-ever growth at 25 percent

Facebook Inc reported a decline in fourth-quarter operating margins on Wednesday, missing Wall Street’s expectations that it would level off spending to improve privacy and content across its apps, and revenue growth was the slowest ever. Shares of the world’s biggest social network dropped 6.3 percent in extended trading. Total costs and expenses surged 34 percent to $12.22 billion (9.3 billion pounds) in the fourth quarter, more than double the 14 percent that analysts had forecast and dragging down operating margins to 42 percent from 46 percent a year earlier. Revenue growth was the slowest-ever at 25 percent, although it beat analysts’ expectations of a dip to 23 percent, playing to concerns that Facebook is struggling to restore its pre-2018 momentum. [caption id=“attachment_7881121” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]  Representational Image. Credit: Reuters[/caption] “Facebook’s revenue was up 25 percent, which is incredibly the slowest year-on-year growth rate in its history. That makes it the fourth straight quarter that the social media giant has delivered sub-30 percent growth,” said Jesse Cohen, analyst at financial markets platform Investing.com. Facebook has faced scrutiny over the past three years from regulators and users worldwide over its privacy practices and data breaches. It is also facing heat over how its services have been manipulated and used to spread misinformation. Daily active users rose to 1.66 billion in the fourth quarter, ahead of estimates of 1.65 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Ad sales jumped 25 percent to $20.74 billion in the quarter, above analysts’ average estimate of $20.52 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Net income rose to $7.35 billion, or $2.56 per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, from $6.88 billion, or $2.38 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit $2.52 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Total revenue rose 24.6 percent to $21.08 billion, beating estimates of $20.89 billion.