Facebook's profits have jumped in
the first three months of the year, as the social network closes in on
two billion users, according to its latest results.
The number of
people using Facebook each month increased to 1.94 billion, of which
nearly 1.3 billion use it daily, the company said.
The US tech giant reported profits of just over $3bn (£2.4bn) in the first quarter, a 76% rise year-on-year.
However, it warned that growth in ad revenues would slow down.
The
company has also come under sustained pressure in recent weeks over its
handling of hate speech, child abuse and self-harm on the social
network.
On Wednesday, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg
announced it was hiring 3,000 extra people to moderate content on the
site.
A quarter of the world's population now uses Facebook every
month, with most of the new users coming from outside of Europe and
North America.
Speaking after the results, Mr Zuckerberg said the
size of its user base gave Facebook an opportunity to expand the site's
role, moving into TV, health care and politics.
"With that foundation our next focus will be building community," he said. "There's a lot to do there."
Ad slowdown
The
company grew its revenue from advertising, which accounts for almost
all of Facebook's income, by 51% to $7.9bn in the period.
However, chief financial officer David Wehner said ad revenue growth would come down significantly over the rest of 2017.
He repeated previous warnings that Facebook was hitting a limit on the number of ads it can squeeze onto users' pages.
Martin
Garner, an analyst at CCS Insight, said: "It's now clear that last
year's stellar results from Facebook represented the peak of online
advertising growth, as Facebook had warned."
Mr Garner said the
company needed to start showing it could make more money from its other
products, including Video, Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, and virtual
reality.
