Facebook's Dating App goes through Internal Testing
Information Technology •
facebooks fortunes shifted in under two hours as the company first reported revenue and user growth that missed expectations and then issued warnings about future growth and expenses2 facebooks dating app goes through internal testing1 facebook dating1

Facebook shares crash as privacy rules bite
News & Trends •
reuters9 facebooks fortunes shifted in under two hours as the company first reported revenue and user growth that missed expectations and then issued warnings about future growth and expenses2 the company further warned that the toll would not be offset by revenue growth from emerging markets and facebooks instagram app which has been more immune from privacy concerns1 facebook incs shares lost as much as a quarter of their value on wednesday after executives said that profit margins would plummet for several years due to the costs of improving privacy safeguards and slowing usage in the biggest advertising markets1 operating profit margin which fell to 44 percent in the second quarter from 47 percent a year ago will sink to the mid-30s for more than two years chief financial officer david wehner said in investor guidance1 the plummeting stock price wiped out as much as 150 billion in market capitalization and erased the stocks gains since april when facebook announced a surprisingly strong 63 percent rise in profit and an increase in users1 if the share drop holds on thursday it would be facebooks largest single-day decline topping a 12 percent decrease in july 20121 nasdaq futures dropped 0.85 percent late on wednesday suggesting the technology-heavy nasdaq composite index would fall when trading opens on thursday morning. facebooks results prompted selling in other nasdaq listings including media and advertising rivals amazon.com inc netflix inc and alphabet inc1 entering a new period1 facebook had cautioned investors to expect a big jump in second-quarter costs because of efforts to address concerns about poor handling of users privacy and to better monitor what users post. total expenses in the second quarter surged to 7.4 billion up 50 percent compared with a year ago1 facebook forecast similar increases for the second half of the year also citing spending on video content and marketing1 its gloomy forecast for revenue growth surprised investors though and prompted many questions from financial analysts on a conference call with company executives on wednesday1 sales in the second quarter grew 42 percent its slowest pace in nearly three years to 13.2 billion compared with 9.3 billion a year ago1 wehner said quarterly revenue growth would be closer to 30 percent the rest of the year1 the second-quarter results were the first sign that a new european privacy law and a succession of privacy scandals involving cambridge analytica and other app developers have bit into facebooks business1 the general data protection regulation gdpr in the european union also will cause a revenue drop. the new privacy law forced several changes to facebooks privacy terms and sign-up process leading a minority of users to opt for non-personalized ads which tend to generate less revenue1 theyre talking about currency headwinds but more we think its due to slower user growth given gdpr and more focus on privacy morningstar analyst ali mogharabi said1 facebooks daily active users in europe declined by 3 million amid the new regulation. worldwide daily user growth for facebooks namesake service slid for its sixth straight quarter bringing it to nearly 1.5 billion users in the second quarter1 the company said for the first time that more than 2.5 billion users interact with at least one of its apps each month but analysts have said many of them are spending more time with messenger whatsapp and instagram. commercialization of those apps is nascent1 revenue from emerging markets has not picked up the slack either. sales from united states canada and europe fell 75 million in the second quarter compared with a year ago while revenue from other markets rose 51 million1 gene munster a venture capitalist at loup ventures said in an email that facebook is entering a new period where declining user growth will translate to slower revenue growth1 he added that facebook has a track record of resetting revenue growth and expense expectations only to turn around and exceed those expectations the following quarter1 facebook reported 5.1 billion in profit or 1.74 per share compared with the average estimates of 5.1 billion and 1.72 per share among research gathered by thomson reuters1 the threat of additional privacy regulatory setbacks remains a concern according to analysts1 facebook suffered a blow in china on wednesday when regulators there withdrew their approval of a company innovation hub to support local startups the new york times reported on wednesday citing a person familiar with the matter1 misinformation on whatsapp contributing to mob killings in india have added to the pressure on facebook to re-evaluate how its services maintain security and decorum1 nearly all social media services have received greater scrutiny since u.s. intelligence agencies in january 2017 revealed that organizations tied to the russian government had seeded content on the platform to shake up the 2016 u.s. presidential election1 he cited currency fluctuations and a shift in usage to features where facebook shows less advertising or charges less due to lower demand1