Facebook has beat analysts’ profit forecasts in the first year since it came embroiled in a privacy scandal, with its quarterly revenues growing almost 50 per cent to $11.97 billion.
The social networking giant said its net income rose to £4.99 billion in the first three months of this year. For the same period in 2017, it posted a profit of £3.06 billion.
Reports of soaring profits suggested there is little sign that users or advertisers had defected amid a scandal over alleged misuse of personal data by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, said: "Despite facing important challenges, our community and business is off to a strong start in 2018."
Facebook had seen its stock tumble by about 9 per cent since the start of the year amid the allegations of failure to safeguard personal data on its platform.
Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook Congress Hearing - In pictures
It was also accused of doing nothing to stop the spread of so-called fake news and misinformation during elections.
Monthly active users rose 13 per cent to 2.2 billion in the first quarter, and revenue soared 49 per cent to $11.97 billion.
This beat analysts' forecasts of $11.41billion.
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