Facebook's profit soars 53%

Facebook posted a profit of $11.2 billion in the final three months of last year, up 53 percent from the previous year,

Revenue rose 33 percent to roughly $28 billion during the quarter, showing the durability of its core advertising business despite the pandemic.

Combined with its various apps, including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, Facebook reported 3.3 billion monthly active users, an on-year increase of 14 percent.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributed its strong end to the year to people and businesses continuing to use its services during the pandemic.

Among the challenges that Facebook is anticipating for the year ahead are the "evolving regulatory landscape" and software changes to iPhone that it expects to hurt its advertising business.

Facebook is also dealing with the spread of harmful content on its platform, such as posts promoting violence during the week of President's Joe Biden's inauguration.