Facebook sees fastest quarterly growth since 2016 but warns of slowdown

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Facebook saw its revenue increase in the second quarter at the largest rate since 2016, but the social media firm warned that it may fall significantly in the second half of the year.

Total revenue rose to $29.07 billion in the April-June period from $18.68 billion in the same period last year, posting a 55.6% increase -- the biggest percentage growth since 2016.

The company, however, warned that "in the third and fourth quarters of 2021, we expect year-over-year total revenue growth rates to decelerate significantly on a sequential basis as we lap periods of increasingly strong growth."

"When viewing growth on a two-year basis to exclude the impacts from lapping the COVID-19 recovery, we expect year-over-two-year total revenue growth to decelerate modestly in the second half of 2021 compared to the second quarter growth rate," it said in a financial statement.

The number of Facebook users rose in the second quarter, with daily active users at 1.91 billion on average and monthly active users at 2.9 billion -- both showing an increase of 7% year-over-year.

The number of users of the company's family of apps, including the Facebook app, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, was at 3.51 billion as of June 30, an increase of 12% from the same date a year earlier.