Facebook quarterly profit leaps 63% to $5 bn

San Francisco (AFP) – Facebook on Tuesday reported that profit in the recently ended quarter leapt 63 percent to $5 billion, as the social network appeared to see no impact from a controversy on privacy.

Advertising revenue was up 50 percent to $11.8 billion in the first three months of this year.

“Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018,” Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said.