Facebook Expected to Post Slower Sales Growth With Apple Privacy Policy

Facebook Inc. FB -5.05% is poised to post another quarter of record sales, though analysts expect changes in Apple Inc.’s app-privacy rules to have weighed on the social-media company’s digital-advertising business.

Facebook’s earnings, due Monday after market close, could show slower growth in ad sales, the company’s primary source of revenue. It is the first full quarter since Apple, in April, required apps to ask users whether they want to be tracked. That change has made it harder for advertisers to target their ads at the right audience and get information regarding how well their ads performed.

In its July earnings report, Facebook warned that Apple’s privacy changes to the iOS operating system could crimp ad-targeting capabilities in the third quarter, as more people update their iPhones and iPads. Last week Snap Inc. SNAP -26.59% blamed the Apple policy for an expected slowdown in revenue growth for the current quarter, resulting in its stock price plummeting more than 20%.

Analysts on average forecast Facebook to post third-quarter revenue of $29.56 billion, according to FactSet, up roughly 38% from the year-ago period. That figure would represent a slowdown in year-over-year sales growth from the 56% jump Facebook enjoyed in the second quarter and the 48% uptick seen in the prior three-month period.

Facebook’s third-quarter profit is projected to rise 17% to $9.21 billion, or $3.19 a share.

Members of Congress have likened Facebook and Instagram’s tactics to that of the tobacco industry. WSJ’s Joanna Stern reviews the hearings of both to explore what cigarette regulation can tell us about what may be coming for Big Tech. Photo illustration: Adele Morgan/The Wall Street Journal

The social-media company kicks off a busy week of earnings for tech giants. Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.51% and Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG -2.91% are scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell Tuesday, with Apple Inc. AAPL -0.53% and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -2.90% numbers due out Thursday. All are expected to post healthy year-over-year top-line growth, as consumers and businesses continue to embrace the digital products and services they offer.

Global supply-chain disruptions are expected to add to the sales growth slowdown for Facebook, according to Jefferies analysts, as vendors dealing with limited inventory curtail their ad spending. Still, the investment firm said the digital advertising is robust and that a new ad product offered on Facebook’s Instagram service has gone live, providing a new revenue stream.

The parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp also has been contending with other challenges. They include intense regulatory scrutiny in Washington and criticism by its own oversight board following a series of Wall Street Journal investigations, called the Facebook Files, into the company’s operations.

Last week the U.K.’s competition regulator fined Facebook 50.5 million British pounds, equivalent to $69.6 million, alleging it breached reporting requirements during a review of its proposed takeover of Giphy, an online provider of animated images. Facebook separately agreed to pay a financial penalty as part of settlements with the U.S. government. It had accused the social-media company of illegally reserving lucrative jobs for immigrant workers it was sponsoring for permanent residence instead of searching for and considering available U.S. workers.

Facebook on Monday also could announce a new company name. Tech publication The Verge has reported that Facebook has been considering a rebranding to signal it is looking to a future beyond its namesake social-media platform. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg lately has been trumpeting his vision for the metaverse, loosely defined as an extensive future online world where people exist and interact in shared virtual spaces through digital avatars.

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The Facebook co-founder recently described the metaverse as the next generation of the Internet and the next chapter for his company. Last week, the company said it planned to create 10,000 jobs in Europe over the next five years to work on its metaverse-related endeavors.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [email protected]