Facebook’s Good Quarter Can’t Hide Tough Ones Ahead
It must leverage news feed and Instagram fans into new offerings and figure out how to monetize them.
The wrong turn leads to Yahoo.
Photographer: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images
Facebook Inc. ended 2018 with a strong kick, but 2019 is likely to be a lost year. What happens after that is a string of question marks.
I’ll start with the good news: Facebook showed Wednesday that its business is remarkably resilient and healthy, even after losing a step or two. Revenue rose more than 30 percent in the fourth quarter, and its operating profit margin was 46 percent — a level that is the envy of the corporate world. The average number of people who use Facebook or its Messenger app daily increased slightly in both North America and Europe, which was a surprise.