Facebook logs solid growth in Q2, 3.14 bn people use its apps

San Francisco: Facing ad boycott over its inaction to remove hate speech, Facebook shares surged over 7 per cent after the social network reported net income of $5.18 billion as revenue jumped 11 per cent to $18.69 billion from $16.89 billion a year ago.

"We're glad to be able to provide small businesses the tools they need to grow and be successful online during these challenging times," said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"We're proud that people can rely on our services to stay connected when they can't always be together in person".

The monthly active users (MAUs) hit 2.7 billion while daily active users (DAUs) rose 12 per cent to 1.79 billion (as of June 30).

Facebook said it counts 3.14 billion monthly users across its family of apps (Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp), compared to 2.99 billion in the first quarter.

"Our business has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, like all companies, we are facing a period of unprecedented uncertainty in our business outlook," Facebook said in a statement.

"We expect our business performance will be impacted by issues beyond our control, including the duration and efficacy of shelter-in-place orders, the effectiveness of economic stimuli around the world, and the fluctuations of currencies relative to the U.S. dollar".

Looking forward, said the company, as shelter-in-place restrictions continue to ease, "we expect the number of Facebook DAUs and MAUs to be flat or slightly down in most regions in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the second quarter of 2020".

Facebook expects total expenses in 2020 to be in the range of $52-55 billion, narrowed slightly from the prior range of $52-56 billion.

"We do not profit from misinformation or hate," Zuckerberg said on the conference call.

Earlier on Wednesday, four big tech CEOs -- Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple -- pushed back against accusations during a US Congress panel hearing capping a yearlong investigation into these companies' market domination online.