Facebook revenue grows 25% in Q4 as company warns of rising expenses

Facebook Inc said on Wednesday that growth would continue to slow as its business matured and reported a surge in quarterly expenses, disappointing Wall Street expectations that the costs of improving privacy would level off.

The news raised concerns that Facebook’s best days were behind it, and shares of the world’s biggest social network dropped 7.2% in extended trading.

Chief Financial Officer David Wehner said on a call with investors that the company’s pace of expansion will slow further in the first quarter of 2020, with a percentage point decline in the low- to mid-single digits, citing its maturing business, the impact of global privacy regulation and concerns about ad targeting.