Facebook’s quarterly revenue jumps 48% on strong ad demand

Revenue climbed to $26.2bn in the first quarter while active users rose 10 percent to 2.85 billion, the social media giant said on Wednesday.

Facebook Inc.’s first-quarter sales rose 48%, surging past analysts’ estimates thanks to strong demand from retailers and other advertisers seeking to grab attention from the social network’s billions of users. Revenue climbed to $26.2 billion, the company said Wednesday in a statement. That dwarfed the $23.7 billion average estimate of analysts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Facebook reported 2.85 billion monthly active users, a rise of 10%. Analysts projected 2.83 billion. Shares jumped about 5.5% in late trading. Menlo Park, California-based Facebook, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has seen a surge in use of its platforms for at-home entertainment and keeping up with loved ones while people have been stuck in lockdown. Larger advertisers have shifted more of their marketing budgets to social media sites, while small businesses ramped up digital outreach to tap potential customers. So far, the company hasn’t seen a slowdown as consumers return to more offline activities as the pandemic begins to subside.