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Facebook is working on some cool stuff, like internet-beaming airplanes and virtual reality vacations, most of which we saw on display earlier this month at the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco.
Its earnings reports, though? Those tend to be a little more … subdued. That’s because Facebook follows a pretty predictable pattern when it comes to earnings, and has consistently grown its ad revenue and user base each and every quarter since going public back in 2012. Wall Street likes it that way.
Facebook’s Q1 earnings report on Wednesday promises to be much of the same, according to analysts (more on that below). So to make things interesting, let’s take a look at what we’d love Facebook to talk about.
A money-making strategy for live video
Facebook decided a few months ago that live video was the new thing, so it has become the new thing for most of its media partners broadcasting regularly to take advantage of Facebook’s algorithm, which favors this kind of content.
What we haven’t seen yet is a way for these broadcasters to make money — and those we’ve spoken to aren’t expecting that to change on Wednesday.
Most of its media partners expect the company to roll out some kind of mid-stream video ad, similar to the TV commercials you’re likely familiar with. But Facebook is also exploring other ideas, like a “tip jar” for users to donate to their favorite broadcasters or maybe even a subscription model.
So there are ideas out there, we just don’t know which ones Facebook will pick. But its media partners are getting anxious and Facebook can’t afford to pay them forever. (It actually probably could, but that’s not good business.)
Instagram revenue numbers
Facebook has taken its advertising playbook and dumped it into Instagram — and those outside the company expect the business to be big — but we haven’t heard revenue totals for Instagram’s ad business and it doesn’t appear we will Wednesday, either. What you may hear, though, are questions about Instagram’s new algorithm, which a lot of brands are weary of.
WhatsApp’s business
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said numerous times in the past that Facebook’s standalone messaging app WhatsApp won’t monetize its user base until its reaches at least one billion users. That happened in February, but until now, WhatsApp has only backed further away from revenue plans. With Facebook Messenger one of the core focuses for Facebook at F8, it’ll be interesting to see if WhatsApp gets some love, too. But we aren’t holding our breath.
Here’s what analysts do expect
Profits of 62 cents per share on revenue of $5.25 billion for the quarter. That would amount to 48 percent revenue growth over the same quarter last year. RBC Capital’s Mark Mahaney is looking for Facebook to add 40 million new users over last quarter, jumping to 1.63 billion from Q4’s 1.59 billion.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
