The social media giant facebook said, despite having an 18 per cent growth in first-quarter revenue last week, it wasn’t making financial predictions due to the uncertainty caused by coronavirus.
Executives say advertising revenue was flat in April, a sign that the promotional industry would be significantly impacted, reports Independent.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed concern about the future said,“While there are massive societal costs from the current shelter in place restrictions, I worry that reopening certain places too quickly, before infection rates have been reduced to very minimal levels, will almost guarantee future outbreaks and even worse economic outcomes”.
“I am very concerned that this health emergency and therefore the economic fallout will last longer than people are currently anticipating,” added he.
The caution Mr Zuckerberg urged stands in stark contrast to others who want to see the quarantine orders lifted as soon as possible.
To Zuckerberg, the company expects losing profits in the year ahead but put emphasis on the social network’s strength currently.
According to Independent, Facebook will hire 10,000 people this year, a potential strategic advantage to poach the best talent as smaller tech firms lay workers off.
When other companies are facing predicament due to pandemic situation, Facebook’s growth is up to the mark. Its first-quarter revenue was $17.7bn, up from $15.1bn the same quarter a year ago. Company’s profits rather doubled to previous year.
Note that many of Facebook 2.89 billion users have been quarantined at home around the world, and they are using the company’s services which include Instagram and WhatsApp more than ever.
Facebook and its fellow tech giants are no doubt in a better position to withstand the coming recession.
