, Columnist
Facebook’s Profit Margin Is Shrinking, But Not for the Reason You Think
It’s spending more on security—and way more on everything else.
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Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly told investors and Congress that Facebook Inc. will spend so much to safeguard its social network against foreign propaganda, hate speech, and data thieves that it will seriously hurt its bottom line. The message: The company will do the right thing, no matter the pain it causes.
It would be nice to believe that Facebook would give up a touch of profit to repair the damage it’s done to the world. But reality isn’t so simple. The company’s profits are squeezed because it’s spending more on everything, and many of those costs are unrelated to dragging social networking out of its cesspool. Mostly, it’s the cost of being Facebook that’s driving up expenses and hurting the profit margin.