Facebook’s surprising third-quarter financial report, 2021.

Facebook, the company founded in 2004 aims to give the people the power to build a community and bring the world close together. People use facebooks apps and technologies to connect with friends and family, find communities and grow businesses.

Lately, things have been going south for the social media giant as the multiple documents released by whistleblowers affected the company in inscrutable ways but the company’s third-quarter financial detail says otherwise.

Facebook’s profit increased by  $9 billion during its most recent 3rd financial quarter amidst the ongoing negative publicity by a major release of documents by whistleblowers and internal unrest among the company’s employees.

Company shares rise as investors focuses on earning and look past whistleblower document dump.

We made good progress this quarter and our community continues to grow,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, and CEO. “I’m excited about our roadmap, especially around creators, commerce, and helping to build the metaverse.”

Third Quarter 2021 Operational and Financial Highlights

• Facebook daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.93 billion on average for September 2021, an increase of 6% year-over-year.
• Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 2.91 billion as of September 30, 2021, an increase of 6% year-over-year.
• Family daily active people (DAP) – DAP was 2.81 billion on average for September 2021, an increase of 11% year-over-year.
• Family monthly active people (MAP) – MAP was 3.58 billion as of September 30, 2021, an increase of 12% year-over-year.
• Capital expenditures – Capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, were $4.54 billion for the third quarter of 2021.
• Share repurchases – We repurchased $14.37 billion of our Class A common stock in the third quarter and had $7.97 billion remaining on our prior share repurchase authorization as of September 30, 2021. We also announced today a $50 billion increase in our share repurchase authorization.
• Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities – Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $58.08 billion as of September 30, 2021.
• Headcount – Headcount was 68,177 as of September 30, 2021, an increase of 20% year-over-year.

• Earnings: $3.22 vs. $3.19 per share expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $29.01 billion vs. $29.57 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

To summarize, the company shared a 6% increase in daily active users, revenue in the third quarter rose by 35% to $29.01 billion with credits going to online advertising and net income rose to 17% to $9.2 billion, from $7.8 billion a year prior.

Apart from all the financial detail the CEO also talked about facebook’s future plans and targets. Mark Zuckerberg said that he is “retooling” Facebook towards serving young adults. He said he wants that mission to be “the north star” rather than appealing to the older users. A recent survey published by Piper Sandler found that while teens used Facebook’s Instagram platform the most out of any social media app, they used the main Facebook app least.

Of the 10,000 teenagers surveyed, 81% said they used Instagram, the highest percentage out of six platforms. Seventy-seven percent said they use Snapchat and 73% said they use TikTok. Just 27% of respondents said they use Facebook.

“Over the last decade as the audience that uses our apps have expanded so much and we focus on serving everyone, our services have gotten dialed to be the best for the most people who use them rather than specifically for young adults,” Zuckerberg said.

The documents released by Haugen showed that the number of teenage users of the Facebook app in the U.S. has declined by 13% since 2019, with a projected drop of 45% over the next two years. The number of users between the ages of 20 and 30 was expected to decline by 4% during that time frame, the documents showed.

Zuckerberg declined the claims and said, “a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company.”

Facebook is facing increased pressure from the rivals like TikTok which has become Genz’s hotspot. Zuckerberg specifically said users aged 18 to 29 are who the company will work to appeal to more by ramping up the Reels feature on Facebook’s Instagram app. Zuckerberg said the company is still closer “to the beginning of that journey” and is still watching how Reels will mature but this will surely take some time.