Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, July 28

• Facebook trounces Wall Street estimates with sharp ad sales growth: Facebook Inc provided more evidence on Wednesday that it can turn eyeballs into profit as the maker of the world's most popular app and social website trounced Wall Street's estimates, sending its shares to an all-time high. The leading social media company's mobile app and push into video attracted new advertisers and encouraged existing ones to spend more. It now has more than 1.7 billion monthly users, well ahead of any rivals. Its shares were up 5.4 percent in after-hours trading at $130.01, after hitting their highest since the company went public in 2012. Mobile advertising revenue accounted for 84 percent of the company's total advertising revenue, compared with 76 percent a year earlier. Total advertising revenue surged 63 percent to $6.24 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $5.80 billion.Meanwhile, Facebook still has several untapped areas for revenue opportunities, including its WhatsApp and Messenger apps, both of which have more than 1 billion users. But Wehner said the company does not plan to monetize them any time soon, and that it is instead focused on building interactions between businesses and users on the apps. Facebook also owns picture-sharing app Instagram, which recently announced it has more than 500 million users. Facebook has yet to say how much money Instagram makes, but research firm eMarketer predicts it will make $1.5 billion in revenue this year.Total revenue rose 59.2 percent to $6.44 billion, ahead of analysts' average estimate of $6.02 billion.

• GoPro revenue plunges 47 percent, but beats estimates: GoPro's quarterly revenue plunged 47.4 percent, but beat analysts' estimates, which have been sharply lowered on shrinking demand for the company's body-mounted point-of-view cameras. The company's shares were up 2.4 percent in volatile trading after the bell on Wednesday. GoPro's revenue fell to $220.8 million in the second quarter ended June 30 from $419.9 million a year earlier.The company, whose cameras are worn by surfers, skydivers and other action junkies, said second-quarter units shipments rose 8 percent to 759,000 compared with the first quarter. Its average selling price increased 11 percent sequentially and 14 percent on a year-over-year basis. GoPro, however, maintained its full-year revenue guidance of $1.35 billion to $1.5 billion. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $1.34 billion. GoPro posted a loss of $91.77 million, or 66 cents per share, for the second quarter.

• Groupon reports better-than-expected revenue, still not profitable: Deal site Groupon saw its shares rising today in after-hours trading, following a better-than-expected second quarter earnings report.Groupon revenue in the first half of 2016 reached $1.49 billion.Groupon beat Wall Street revenue expectations with second quarter revenue of $756 million. And it posted a better-than-expected net loss of $6.8 million on a non-GAAP basis, or $0.01 loss per share. In a phone interview, Groupon CEO Rich Williams said that the reasons the company did not make profits in the last quarter are essentially two: Groupon is still investing in marketing and other efforts to attract new customers, and they face other costs associated with company restructuring.In the first half of 2016, Groupon revenue looked better than it did over the same period last year. But the company is not looking quite as strong as it did in the first half of 2015 in terms of profitability.