Taking a page from rival Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (META 0.84%) warned Tuesday it is seeing a slow down in advertising sales amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a blog post, the social media giant said it is experiencing a huge uptick in usage but warned it’s not enough to cushion the blow from a weakening advertising business in countries that are taking aggressive action to slow the spread of the virus.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
Facebook said much of its increased traffic is coming from its messaging services, with usage increasing 50% and time in group calls increasing by more than 1,000% during March. Facebook is also seeing up to 70% more time spent across its apps since the pandemic landed in the U.S. Views on Instagram and Facebook Live have doubled in a week.
”We don’t monetize many of the services where we’re seeing increased engagement, and we’ve seen a weakening in our ads business in countries taking aggressive actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Facebook wrote in its COVID-19 update.
Facebook’s warning mirrors what Twitter had to say a day earlier. The microblogging operator cautioned it won’t meet its guidance for the first quarter because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Facebook, it did note its user base is growing, as people seek out information on social media.
“The COVID-19 impact began in Asia, and as it unfolded into a global pandemic, it has impacted Twitter's advertising revenue globally more significantly in the last few weeks," said Ned Segal, Twitter's Chief Financial Officer in a press release providing the quarterly update. “We have made solid progress on our consumer and revenue product priorities and we remain confident in our opportunity and strategy.”
It’s not clear if Alphabet’s (GOOG -1.14%) (GOOGL -0.98%) Google will be the next to issue a warning about the current quarter.
