It would be hard for anyone to deny that social media hasn’t grown immensely popular over the last couple of decades. While Facebook is no doubt at the top, there are also a variety of other platforms that are being heavily utilized. Not only utilized by individuals for personal reasons, but for professional reasons as well. That’s right, people are now using social media platforms to sell and market products. Not only this, but you can even use such platforms to communicate with co-workers.
Given this information, it is easy to see how Facebook has grown to be one of the biggest and most talked-about online platforms today. People from all over are following the social media giant and using everything that it has to offer.
What Facebook Expects
Given the effects that COVID has had on many industries today, it is always exciting and interesting to see how certain giants have responded. There is no denying that Facebook is a giant that has grown immensely popular over the years. People and businesses from all over are taking advantage of everything this social media giant has to offer. Many people are even basing their business models on the very one that Facebook uses. Facebook could set the bar for other online businesses today.
With the company set to release its third-quarter earnings on the 29th of October, people and businesses from all over are waiting in anticipation to see what the reports show. How are the earnings and what could they mean for the future of the company? While Facebook hasn’t made any official reports at the moment, they have been quoted saying that they do expect DAUs and MAUs to be slightly down in some regions. Despite this, it is also believed that the company will see ad revenue growth by as much as 10%. This is likely due to COVID.
More and more companies are starting to realize just how important it is to market and advertise online these days. There are now even sites like Famoid available that can help companies grow on social media. Given this information, the company also believes that the revenue will rise as well.
Ad Sales Might Drop
Despite the fact that the company believes the ad sales will increase, it is entirely possible that they might actually drop. This is because Facebook has also seen immense growth in services like Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As more and more people are being forced into lockdown for longer periods of time, they are expanding out and reaching into different markets. They are experimenting with different social media providers just to see what’s out there.
Combine this with the fact that a lot of these other platforms offer free services, and it is easy to see why people are jumping on the chance. Zack’s Consensus Estimate is that the third-quarter MAUs will see a growth of 10.3 percent from last year’s reports. There is another 10 percent growth expected in the DAUs. If this actually happens, it will bring the MAUs to 2.701 billion and the DAUs to 1.786 billion.
Regardless of these predictions, it is entirely possible that ad sales might take a hit. If this is the case then it will likely be because of the hit from advertiser exodus. Starbucks, Coca Cola, and Verizon have already announced their plans to freeze their Facebook accounts because of its failure to eradicate hate speech and misinformation. It is factors like these and others that could potentially hurt Facebook’s ad growth this quarter.
Pertinent Q3 Developments
Facebook has made many attempts and others to combat the negative publicity that it has experienced over the last few months because of hate speech and misinformation. One of the ways it did this was by trying to remain neutral in politics. They made the announcement that they would no longer accept political ads during or a week before the election.
Not only this, but the social media giant has also gone above and beyond to help businesses, educators, and media publishers stay relevant during COVID. They launched something known as paid online events that allow businesses to set up paid events or classes where co-workers, educators, and students can communicate online.
Facebook also made some major changes to its video and photo platform as well. They are now allowing users to directly transfer photos and videos to two additional services. Users can now transfer videos and photos to Dropbox and Koofr. Facebook has also been working in conjunction with several AR and VR teams, so there are some real new major potentials out there for both users of Facebook and investors of the platform.
After Thoughts
There is no denying that Facebook could set the bar for other companies today. Facebook is a giant, and if they are failing, it is possible that other businesses will fail with the same approaches. However, just because Facebook succeeds with specific strategies, it doesn’t mean that other companies will also see success in these areas. This much should be clear by now.