Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#101

Post by trophycase » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 1:53 AM UTC

malvosenior wrote: post #42

Barrin92 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is research being done on targeted advertisement, and apart from the obvious effect of altering your behaviour and your attention, there has been research shown that it can go as far as changing self-perception.[1] So to claim that there is no downside to targeted marketing is simply false. We have very little understanding what sort of effects it has on consumers, and as far as we know they're not all good. Th…

What are you claiming the downside to targeted advertising is? A change in self perception from a single (dubious) study doesn't suggest negative effects. Why do I say the study was dubious? They showed a small number of undergraduates a luxury watch ad and told them it was being shown to them based on their behavior. Those participants then rated themselves more sophisticated. Of course if someone frames it like tha…

I'm not sure you actually understand how advertising works.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#102

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 1:59 AM UTC

jcfrei wrote: post #59

pavlov wrote: post #44

Facebook is a weird mass-market product because the average American tech industry pundit has very little visibility into how it’s actually used around the world. Take Facebook Watch. Ask a journalist or HN commenter, and they’ll tell you that it’s a content wasteland, a flop, a waste of investment. Here’s what Zuckerberg said about Watch on the earnings call: "There are now 400 million people who use it every month,…

I wonder, will this large part of Facebook users that still uses the platform (and Watch) eventually migrate to Instagram as well (as most of North America and Europe appear to have done?). Or does the standard Facebook actually better cater to a large part of the world's population than Instagram?

[deleted]

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#103

Post by porpoisely » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:00 AM UTC

panabee wrote: post #8

chollida1 wrote: post #5

Pre: - still 30% off highs Numbers: - 4Q EPS $2.38, Est. $2.18 - 4Q Rev. $16.91B, Est. $16.39B - 4Q Mobile Ad Rev. as % Ad Rev. 93% - Mobile represents 93% of ad revenue. Mark doesn't get enough credit for his big switch to mobile, - Cost of revenue up 74 percent year over year - Operating costs went up by 60%, Note this is more than their growth rate, really the only concerning thing from a good quarter - Annual cap…

thanks for this and other breakdowns. what was the primary driver for operating costs rising so much?

I'm guessing most of increase are the "moderators/censors" the media and political groups pressured them to hire. The same thing happened with google a couple of years ago when they were forced to hire thousands of people to moderate/censor content.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#104

Post by mmmmmmmmm » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:00 AM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #61

adpirz wrote: post #12

It’s hard not to look at this performance and take away from it that most people really don’t care about privacy. As upsetting as the thought may be to some, Mark’s hypothesis that privacy is no longer a social norm we value seems to be proven more and more right. Despite all the scandals and hearings, their DAU are more than the population of the largest countries on Earth. Short of serious legislation, what slows t…

Its not that they dont care about privacy a number of people do as others have said their bedroom windows likely have curtains. They likely close their bathroom / bedroom doors for privacy. The issue is they either dont truly understand the technical implications or they have already been so invested into Facebook personally and with no alternative to migrate to in sight (they bought Intagram which could of been one)…

The privacy people care about and the privacy Facebook violates are two mostly distinct things. The average person does not care that Facebook tracked them to espn.com or wherever else they went on the web, but they would be outraged if Facebook installed cameras in their bathroom.

I suspect that if it came out that Facebook knew what porn sites you were visiting, outrage over Facebook's privacy practices would become much more real. Currently, the Facebook outrage is mostly just manufactured by the media.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#105

Post by dang » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:07 AM UTC

randomsearch wrote: post #55

Or... Zuckerberg is lying. You certainly can’t treat anything he says as ground truth - you need independent figures.

Please don't take HN threads on flamewar tangents. There's plenty of opportunity to make substantive critiques on HN. This is not that.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#106

Post by gammateam » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:08 AM UTC

bitpush wrote: post #72

randomsearch wrote: post #55

Or... Zuckerberg is lying. You certainly can’t treat anything he says as ground truth - you need independent figures.

You have every right to be less than impressed with the company and its business model(s), but dont make baseless claims.

Companies restate earnings all the time, years after traders already made a profit :)

It isnt a baseless claim to point out the infallability of a CEO or the broken incentive model to tout bad information or consciously lie

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#107

Post by porpoisely » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:09 AM UTC

nerdface wrote: post #31

The whole market is up due to today's announcement of interest rates remaining the same, not any unique announcement to Facebook.

Look at the after hours volume and price movement. It's definitely an earnings related move.

https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/fb/after-hours

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#108

Post by trophycase » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:11 AM UTC

m0zg wrote: post #60

I hope this will pierce the HN anti-FB bubble somewhat. It's dangerous to believe one's own BS. FB is here to stay, although I do believe it will wither in the long term (5+ years).

It's really not a HN bubble. Facebook the site/app has peaked for the most part, both people I know who are currently in high school do not use it and have never made a "Facebook" page. Now Instagram is a completely different story of course.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#109

Post by trophycase » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:12 AM UTC

jalgos_eminator wrote: post #54

deegles wrote: post #40

I’m growing more and more convinced that the only real way for employees to enact real change at their company is for them to become a significant, united group of shareholders and force changes from the top. Unions sure as hell aren’t being encouraged. Unfortunately this would not work in Facebook since Zuck still has a controlling interest but it might work for others. Does that make sense?

I'm afraid that this is just how capitalism works. People have to vote with their dollars, and right now they are voting for Facebook.

They aren't even voting for Facebook with their dollars. FB/Insta is something they use for free and they are "way too smart" to be affected by advertising because they "see ads all the time and don't want to run out and buy the product"

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#110

Post by gnahckire » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 2:13 AM UTC

eanzenberg wrote: post #70

pavlov wrote: post #44

Facebook is a weird mass-market product because the average American tech industry pundit has very little visibility into how it’s actually used around the world. Take Facebook Watch. Ask a journalist or HN commenter, and they’ll tell you that it’s a content wasteland, a flop, a waste of investment. Here’s what Zuckerberg said about Watch on the earnings call: "There are now 400 million people who use it every month,…

I was super impressed on the recommendations from FB watch where I just kept it auto-playing the next and the next video. Their tech isn't as good, their videos are choppier than youtube and netflix, but their recommendations were insanely good.

Ooh that's interesting. I'm not surprised by how great their recommendations are; Facebook's AI research team is pretty top notch. I wonder what they're doing for recommendations.