Facebook reports a decline in users in the U.S. and Canada

CNBC ^ | October 29, 2020 | Salvador Rodriguez

[Jyotishi]

KEY POINTS

Facebook stock remained relatively flat on Thursday after the company reported a decrease in users in the U.S. and Canada but moderate revenue growth in its third-quarter earnings.

In the U.S. and Canada, Facebook’s user base fell to 196 million daily active users from 198 million a quarter earlier.

The StopHateForProfit ad boycott did not seem to impact the company’s advertising revenue, which was up 22% compared to a year ago.

WATCH NOW VIDEO0 1:03

Facebook reports EPS beat $2.71 v. $1.91 estimated Facebook stock was down more than 2% on Thursday after the company reported a decrease in users in the U.S. and Canada but moderate revenue growth in its third-quarter earnings.

Earnings: $2.71 cents per share, vs $1.91 per share forecast by Refinitiv

Revenue: $21.47 billion, vs $19.8 billion forecast by Refinitiv

Daily active users (DAUs): 1.82 billion vs. 1.79 billion forecast by FactSet

Monthly active users (MAUs): 2.74 billion vs. 2.7 billion forecast by FactSet

Average revenue per user (ARPU): $7.89 vs. $7.32 forecast by FactSet

In the U.S. and Canada, Facebook’s user base fell to 196 million daily active users from 198 million a quarter earlier. The company said its U.S. and Canada user base had been elevated during the second quarter due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company cautioned that it expects its user base in the U.S. and Canada to remain flat or decrease in the fourth quarter.

It's user base in Europe remained flat at 305 million daily active users for the third consecutive quarter.

Facebook said it counts 3.21 billion monthly users across its family of apps, compared to 3.14 billion in the previous quarter. This metric is used to measure Facebook’s total user base across its main app, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

The StopHateForProfit ad boycott did not seem to impact the company’s advertising business, with ad revenue up 22% compared to a year ago. Additionally, the company now has 10 million active advertisers, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call. That’s up from 9 million in July. The boycott included more than 1,000 advertisers that paused ads on the social network during the month of July in protest of the company’s hate speech and misinformation policies.

Facebook expects its fourth quarter ad revenue growth rate to be higher than the third quarter, driven by holiday season demand, the company said.

Facebook’s “Other” revenue came in at $249 million for the quarter, down 7% compared to last year. This includes sales of Oculus virtual reality headsets and the Portal video-chatting devices. However, the company said sales of the Oculus Quest 2 have been strong and could benefit its “Other” revenue in the fourth quarter.

Despite Apple’s decision to delay ad tracking changes to iOS 14, Facebook still anticipates that it could be a problem.

“In addition, we expect more significant targeting and measurement headwinds in 2021,” the company said in its earnings report. “This includes headwinds from platform changes, notably on Apple iOS 14, as well as those from the evolving regulatory landscape.”

VIDEO 05:14

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Congress: Section 230 helped create the internet as we know it

[familyop]

In my area, Facebook is the favorite of drug addicts and bureaucrats.

[Alberta's Child]

I suspect Facebook is the favorite social media platform for Karens.

[Maudeen]

I am happy to say I am not part of the statistic. Don’t facebook, twitter or tweet and certainly don’t Zoom. But I do appreciate FReepers keeping me posted on the latest!

[Herakles]

Ditto on that. Social media is for loosers.

[Mozilla]

I gave up ten years ago when I saw the bias and everyone I tried to rekindle old friendships did not respond or left the site. It was a waste of time. An idea 6 years ago to keep the accounts to talk to family failed. My dad died and his side of the fam seems they love FF. I was hoping to reconnect there but everyday is more and more reasons to never go back. I don’t share in FF’s political viewpoints. I have given up on that. Now in recent years quit Twitter too. Only doing Gab.

[guido911]

My reaction.

[Prole]

Tear that Orwellian POS facebook to shreds!!!

[Revel]

Well they have banned about half of there users for not being progressives. So there is that.

[MagnoliaB]

I have never used FaceBook to talk about much ‘personal’ stuff. FaceBook is the best place to wake up and redpill people as long as you don’t care who you p!$$ off or when you are defriended. I have only lost three people from my friends list over the years and I have successfully WOKE almost everyone else. It’s been a real battle field. People are getting NOTHING BUT LIES from the media. I have constantly MEMED and shoved legitimate articles, videos, etc. in people’s faces for however long I have been on there. I never cared about whether anyone commented or not. I just kept pumping it out there. I am sure I was considered a ‘nut job’ for a long time but now I have people that I know voted for that usurper Obama sending me articles on his corruption. I call that winning. When you tell people something that is true but they don’t believe or have been lied to about, they look it up so they can disprove what you tell them. Then they find out it is true. I am glad I started as long ago as I did because now you can really see how google and Facebook are manipulating information but they see it too. It has definitely been worth it because for every person I have woken they in turn wake up other people.

FR is great but it’s ‘preaching to the choir’ for the most part. You only make a difference when you wake up people that for whatever reason are not getting the true picture.

[dp0622]

it’s actually a very good earnings report which belies the title all the way through.

I’ll never go to it again but they blew away earnings and next quarter’s revenue is expected to be more than this one’s?

that’s not failure.

I don’t like lying articles titles from the left or right

[krogers58]

All of these “social media” platforms are brainchilds of the NSA/CIA to be able to collect information and to disseminate false information to the public. Just do a google search for In-Q-Tel, which is the current name of their technology investment fund. Check out this story from CBS News, it discusses this and other facts;

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-is-a-tool-of-the-cia-seriously/

I’ve followed facebook, Microsft, Google, et al since their inception and have seen first-hand how they were not only given capital, but given illegal help in becoming monopolies. It’s become clear, that the CIA/NSA through their proxy “social media” holdings, are now reaping the benefits of our taxpayer funded investments. All it took was to get a dyed-in-the-wool communist, like Brennan into the upper echelons of the agency, and he has brought in his own people, to the extent they were openly spying on a presidential candidate, then attempting a coup against a lawfully elected president. Now they’re putting their government-funded thumb on the election scales and are trying to rig the election through their control of the flow of information.

Do you think the deep state cares that CNN, NYTimes, Washington Post, etc. loses money hand over fist? Profits are not the motivation of these media outlets any longer but controlling the flow of information is their primary commodity, and they are not about to relinquish it.

Congress has let this genie out of the bottle, and there’s literally no way to get it back in. Aside from the overt violations of law, which the FBI used to police, it became obvious to the deep state to co-opt the FBI, gather dirt on them, and control them. Let’s face the facts, we have given over control of this country to authoritarians, and there is little that can be done about it. Like a constricting snake, they’ve put systems in place to handle any kinds of uprisings, and have the ability and means to round up, and imprison anyone who becomes a threat to them.

It is good to hear that facebook is losing market share, particularly in these times of COVID, but whoever people go and find as an alternative will soon become a target of the deep state. How does anyone explain what’s become of Drudge, other than the deep state got to him, and he chose either lead or gold. Nowadays, they don’t use lead, they develop Kompromat on their targets, which isn’t hard in the cesspool that is D.C. Begin to remove all of your social history, and don’t always carry your cellphone.

[momincombatboots]

You should share your strategy and tactics. Freepers could band together around that.
I might even get a fb account. Sounds like the Freeper definition of fun.

[true believer forever]

I have never used FaceBook to talk about much ‘personal’ stuff. FaceBook is the best place to wake up and redpill people as long as you don’t care who you p!$$ off or when you are defriended. I have only lost three people from my friends list over the years and I have successfully WOKE almost everyone else. It’s been a real battle field. People are getting NOTHING BUT LIES from the media. I have constantly MEMED and shoved legitimate articles, videos, etc. in people’s faces for however long I have been on there. I never cared about whether anyone commented or not. I just kept pumping it out there. I am sure I was considered a ‘nut job’ for a long time but now I have people that I know voted for that usurper Obama sending me articles on his corruption. I call that winning. When you tell people something that is true but they don’t believe or have been lied to about, they look it up so they can disprove what you tell them. Then they find out it is true. I am glad I started as long ago as I did because now you can really see how google and Facebook are manipulating information but they see it too. It has definitely been worth it because for every person I have woken they in turn wake up other people.

FR is great but it’s ‘preaching to the choir’ for the most part. You only make a difference when you wake up people that for whatever reason are not getting the true picture.

I am similar to you, and another tactic I use is to have one detail that is slightly inaccurate. This usually gets an attack and prompts other to side with the attacker by looking for content to support him or her, but there really isn't any. Do it enough times, they start to wilt. Thanks for all you do ...

[GreatRoad]

Facebook and Twitter are wholey owned subsidiaries of the CCP, I think Zuckerberg and Dorsey have the expressions of being compromised.

[No_Mas_Obama]

I proudly deleted my longtime FB account during this most recent quarter.

[cranked]

Yep, continue to censor, etc., I am sure it will recoup or bring in further potential Facebook users...../s

[cranked]

When did Facebook allow accounts to be deleted cause last time I tried, all I could do was wipe and hide my acct vs simply deleting that but that was years ago.....?

[Bodega]

I am a practicing Buddhist. I was a practicing Facebooker between 10 and 15 years ago..a good while ago. Then I posted something I said, I have no idea to this day what, that caused the deletion of my account.

I imagine it was caustic, very conservative, preserving life of babies, active discussion on using logic to create solutions for problems, etc.

I have never missed it as I found it basically very boring, not thoughtful, non-controversial, unthinking and without substance.

I do not and have never regretted being banned.

[Starcitizen]

50 million users soon removed from Facebook once DITO ( the Philippines Telecom, owned fully the Communist Chinese Party) is operating. Duterte to ban PLDT and Globe, the two existing telecos here...

Elections have consequences...