Facebook's digital ad revenue just keeps rolling in despite antitrust threat

It sounds like a broken record, but Facebook Inc. continues to do just that: Break revenue records. Despite federal regulators breathing down its neck about its business practices, threats of ad boycotts from parties aggrieved by its privacy policies and a pandemic, the social-networking juggernaut is expected to post another jaw-dropping quarterly result on Wednesday. Facebook FB, +1.55% is firing on all cylinders because of — what else? — dominance in the digital ad market, which is expected to show growth as the pandemic slows down. Facebook and Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +2.10% GOOG, +2.09% will “benefit most from the reopening (from a user and advertiser perspective),” Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney said in an April 15 note. At the same time, Facebook increasingly has diversified its revenue mix, adding sales of Oculus VR headsets and Portal video-chatting devices. Non-advertising revenue soared 156% to $885 million in the fiscal fourth quarter. It doesn’t end there: On Monday, Facebook announced new audio products to compete with Clubhouse and podcasts, and it is proceeding with a version of Instagram for kids. Facebook’s growth is all the more remarkable in a political landscape fraught with federal and state antitrust lawsuits, as well as…
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