Facebook sales shoot up 50pc despite data scandal

Facebook's quarterly sales rose by nearly 50 per cent in the social media giant's first results since a privacy scandal over users' data emerged.

The company said that revenues rose to $11.9 billion in the first three months of the year, compared to $8 billion previously.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said: "Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018."

He added that the firm is "taking a broader review of our responsibility".

Facebook said that its advertising revenue rose to $11.7 billion in the three months to the end of March, compared to $7.8 billion in the same period a year ago.

First quarter profits also grew, reaching $4.9 billion compared to $3 billion last year.

In March, towards the end of Facebook's reporting period, the company was caught up in a massive privacy scandal involving the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica,

Facebook admitted that the data of 87 million users had been improperly shared with the consultancy.

Commenting on the first quarter results, Mr Zuckerberg said: "We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good."

"But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together."

Facebook said the average number of daily active users over March had risen to 1.45 billion, a 13 per cent increase year-on-year.

The average number of monthly active users for March also rose by 13 per cent, to 2.2 billion, and the number of staff saw a steep 48 per cent increase to 27,742.