Facebook UK posts a profit

by Sara Kimberley, mediaweek.co.uk 17-Nov-09, 11:55

LONDON - Social network Facebook made a paper pre-tax profit of £439,422 in its first 17 months of UK trading.

More than 90% of Facebook's £4.7m UK turnover, which the firm said was "attributable to the USA", was swallowed up by operating costs following its launch in the UK, according to the company's first full-year financial results.

The results for the 17 months from August 2007 to December 2008 show it posted a profit from its "invoiced sales of services", despite administration costs of £4.3m,

representing staff wages, accom-modation and equipment - assumed to be start-up costs.

The firm's first UK hire, in October 2007, was current European commercial director Blake Chandlee, who was initially appointed as sales director. He joined from Yahoo, where he was commercial director.

A Facebook statement said: "In keeping with legal requirements, we file reports about local operations, but it would be a mistake to draw any conclusions from such reports.

"The information presented does not reflect a full accounting of a given company's overall financial performance."

The social networking site has 30 million unique visitors in the UK, according to comScore.