Tech giants pull big profits despite controversy

Facebook, Amazon and Google are racking up record profits following a year marked by public controversies over their privacy and business practices.

The strong bottom lines have sparked frustration among lawmakers and tech industry critics, who say the numbers drive home the need for tougher federal regulation to rein in web giants. They worry the companies have little incentive to change their business models or policies on their own.

Lina Khan, a senior fellow with anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute, told The Hill that the record profits show “bad publicity is not turning consumers away.”

“They’re not the kinds of services where you can expect individuals to boycott or to take their consumer business elsewhere,” she said.

Facebook last week announced $16.9 billion in revenue for the final quarter of 2018 and $55.8 billion for the year, a 37 percent increase from 2017.

Amazon also reported record profits for a third consecutive quarter, generating $3 billion in net income. Amazon’s income is up 66 percent from 2017.

And Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported $39.3 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018, marking a 15 percent jump from the previous quarter and 22 percent from the same quarter in 2017. Alphabet’s net income for the final quarter of 2018 was $8.9 billion.

The profitable numbers pose a challenge for consumer advocates and lawmakers, who have watched the companies, in particular Facebook, weather storm after storm.