What’s Going On Here?Facebook reported higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue late on Wednesday, and investors didn’t wait around to slide into the social media giant’s DMs. What Does This Mean?With the world forced to stay home toward the end of last quarter, there wasn’t much else to do but scroll through Facebook and watch Instagram Live’s quarantine concerts. That helped the tech giant clock 10% more monthly active users than the same time last year. Still, while it had predicted its revenue growth rate would slow this quarter, the company – like Google before it – hadn’t factored in just how much coronavirus-shy advertisers would curtail their March spending. That revelation landed with a thud: Facebook’s ad revenue so far in April has essentially been the same as a year ago (tweet this). What’s more, it seems to have lost its knack for keeping costs in check despite all the expense-trimming it’s been doing: it reported a quarterly profit that slightly missed estimates, and opted not to give investors a prediction about how its year will pan out. Why Should I Care?The bigger picture: It all ads up.
Facebook’s bigger advertisers do still seem to be splashing some cash on the platform, even if their future spending is uncertain. But the social butterfly serves eight million ad partners and 120 million businesses, and only 20% of its revenue comes from the top 100 of those. It’s Facebook’s smaller customers, then, that might be a cause for concern: small- and medium-sized businesses are among the worst hit by the pandemic, and while the economy will eventually recover, there’s no guarantee those firms will too.
For markets: What a relief rally.
Most investors were braced for harrowing updates for companies reliant on advertising, like Facebook, Snapchat-owner Snap, and Google-parent Alphabet. Perhaps the reality wasn’t as bad as they thought, because Snap, Alphabet, and now Facebook’s shares all shot up after their respective updates. No pressure, then: Twitter’s facing similar challenges, and reports its earnings late on Thursday. | 