Facebook sees the growth of its sales slow down

(Reuters) – Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has registered in the first quarter, the weakest growth of its quarterly revenue in two years, accompanied by an increase in its expenses for research and development (R&D), which have been cropped on its profits.

The action of the first social network the world has lost up to 3.1% in after-Trading on Wednesday.

Facebook has warned that 2015 would be a year of heavy investment to assist in the development of a series of products, including the e-mail service for mobile WhatsApp, the photo-sharing service Instagram and the designer of virtual reality helmets Oculus Rift.

Its operating expenses have increased by 83% in the first quarter, with a soaring R&D costs of 133% and a near doubling of marketing spend and sales.

The company announces that it has been 1.44 billion active users per month, of which 87% on mobile devices.

Net income, group share, was down to 509 million (474,55 million), or 18 cents per share, in the first quarter to 31 march, compared with 639 million, 25 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Facebook earned 42 cents per share.

Its turnover has increased to $ 3.54 billion compared to 2.50 billion in the first quarter of 2014. The advertising revenue has reached 3,32 billion, up 46% compared to the same period last year.

Analysts were expecting on average a profit of 40 cents per share and a turnover of 3.56 billion dollars.

(Bill Rigby in Seattle and Abhirup Roy in Bangalore, Juliette Rouillon for the French service)