Facebook hits 2.27 billion monthly active users as earnings stabilize

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg testifies before a U.S. Senate joint hearing on Cap
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg listens while testifying before a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing regarding the company's use and protection of user data, on Capitol Hill on April 10, 2018. Copyright Leah Millis Reuters file
By Jason Abbruzzese with NBC News Tech and Science News
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Mark Zuckerberg said in a press release that the company's apps serve more than 2 billion people each day.

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Facebook avoided a repeat of its disastrous second quarter on Tuesday, reporting that the company's social network now serves 2.27 billion monthly users.

The company announced that it generated revenue of $13.7 billion in the third quarter of the year, slightly below what Wall Street analysts expected — but good enough to avoid another stock price plunge.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive officer, said in a press release that the company's suite of services — Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp — now serve more than 2 billion people every day.

"We're building the best services for private messaging and stories, and there are huge opportunities ahead in video and commerce as well," Zuckerberg said.

Facebook generated $5.1 billion in profit this quarter.

While the days of its meteoric growth in the U.S. are over, Facebook said it added users in the Asia-Pacific region and in other parts of the world, more than offsetting a slight dip in European users.

In after-hours trading, Facebook stock dipped sharply in the minutes after announcing its earnings but recovered to add about 1.7 percent as of 4:24 p.m. ET.

In July, Facebook shares plunged more than 20 percent after the company warned that it would be less profitable in the years ahead.

Facebook has also endured a series of issues including ongoing concerns about foreign influence campaigns ahead of the 2018 U.S. midterm elections and a security breach that revealed the personal information of more than 14 million users.

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