Facebook revenues jump by a third

FACEBOOK raked in revenues of £10.8bn in just three months over the summer.

A day after Philip Hammond launched a tax raid on the tech giants, the social network said sales were 33pc higher in the three months to the end of September than they were in the same period a year earlier.

The revenue figures narrowly missed analyst expectations however, and its 2.3bn tribe of monthly active users was also below estimates.

But profits topped market forecasts, rising 9pc to £4bn. Facebook shares swung wildly following the publication of its third quarter results.

Facebook also owns photo sharing app Instagram and instant messaging platform WhatsApp.

Its latest results come after a disastrous year for the firm which has been blighted by numerous privacy scandals.

Last month it admitted up to 50m Facebook users were left exposed by a security flaw. And earlier this year it was rocked by a major data breach involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica which was found to have harvested personal data from millions of personal accounts.

The Chancellor used the Budget this week to turn his fire on the US tech giants.

He pledged for force the internet firms to pay their ‘fair share’ by introducing the Digital Services Tax which is expected to raise the Treasury as much as £400m a year.

Facebook and other tech firms have long been criticised for the amount of tax they pay in the UK. After deductions, Facebook paid just £2.6m in UK corporation tax last year.

The digital tax will be introduced in 18 months.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook said: ‘Our community and business continue to grow quickly, and now more than 2 billion people use at least one of our services 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.’