With more eyeballs, Facebook also saw revenue grow 11% to nearly $ 18.7 billion for the second quarter, even as the overall economy contracted.
The company said its daily and monthly active user numbers “reflect increased engagement as people around the world took refuge on-site and used our products to connect with the people and organizations that matter to them.” However, the company said that as requests to stay home begin to decline, it expects engagement to be stable or to decrease slightly in the next three months, compared to the last quarter.
Facebook shares rose more than 7% after trading hours on Thursday after the earnings report.
In a call with analysts, Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives reiterated how much they believe the platform helps small businesses and that significant changes could affect the overall economy.
“I am concerned about calls to go after Internet advertising, especially during a time of as much economic crisis as we are facing today with Covid,” said Zuckerberg. “Admittedly, making it harder to target ads would affect the incomes of companies like Facebook. But the much higher cost of such a move would be to reduce the effectiveness of ads and the opportunities for small businesses to grow … it would probably feel level. macroeconomic “.
“Is that really what policymakers want in the midst of a pandemic and recession?” Zuckerberg added.
Zuckerberg reused some of his prepared comments from yesterday’s audience on the call, promoting the technology industry as an “American success story” and saying that “the products we build have changed the world to improve and improve the lives of persons”.
“Since Covid came into being, people have used our services to keep in touch with friends and family they can’t be with in person, and to keep their businesses online even when physical stores are closed,” Zuckerberg said on the call. “In many ways, in this difficult time for people around the world, our services are more important now than ever.”
But any possible financial impact of the boycott would not be seen during the second quarter, which ended in June.
While some brands have pledged to pause spending until the end of this month, others, such as household goods giant Unilever, are stopping advertising on social media until the end of the year, not just on Facebook. However, much of Facebook’s advertising revenue comes from small and medium-sized businesses, which could protect it from a significant revenue deficit.
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