The social network has published a loss $157m for the quarter, a disappointing result for Facebook's debut as a public company.


According the Daily Telegraph:
The Californian company had been under intense pressure to deliver strong results given the almost 30pc drop in its share price since the $104bn (£66bn) flotation in May.
Although revenues climbed 32pc to $1.18bn in the second quarter, beating analysts' estimates, it failed to convince investors who had seen saw revenues climb 45pc in the first quarter. At the same time its spending on sales and marketing more than tripled to $392m in the period.

These underwhelming figures only add to what is becoming a tough year for Facebook; after several years of meteoric revenue and popularity growth, the cold reality of the global financial crisis has brought the social media boom back to earth with a bump.

Zynga, the games company that has exploded under Facebook's 900 million-strong user base has also suffered this week with an embarrassing drop in share price following a lukewarm IPO flotation - remarkably similar to what Mark Zuckerberg and company are going through now.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Ian Maude of Enders Analysis said:


“This is the proof that there is a social media bubble,” he said. “Those investors who piled in at $38 were on a hiding to nothing. Revenue growth even before Facebook’s IPO wasn’t there to support that valuation. 
"People bought shares at those inflated prices based on the idea that Facebook was the new Google. It isn’t.
“The issue is Facebook’s revenue growth which has slowed down over the last 12 months and the real worry is it’s not going to be able to turn it around. Plus the revenue per user is pretty flat. As more and more of its users access Facebook on mobiles, the social network must prove it can monetise mobile if it is to dramatically grow revenues.”