Many tech companies are thriving in terms of their software usage during the Covid-19 outbreak and worldwide lockdowns have meant an increase in reliance on them. And while this is true for their usage, it hasn’t exactly helped their overall revenue as they are not exactly able to easily monetise this usage, which actually takes more manpower to maintain.
Facebook is one such company that has seen its usage spike over the past few weeks, but at the same time has now revealed that the growth is all in the non-monetised segments of the platform with business revenue actually down considerably. As the company revealed in a new blog post:
The usage growth from COVID-19 is unprecedented across the industry, and we are experiencing new records in usage almost every day. Maintaining stability throughout these spikes in usage is more challenging than usual now that most of our employees are working from home.
Much of the increased traffic is happening on our messaging services, but we’ve also seen more people using our feed and stories products to get updates from their family and friends. At the same time, our business is being adversely affected like so many others around the world. 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.
And to showcase exactly how pressured the company is feeling at the moment, CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared to the New York Times that the company is simply just trying, “to keep the lights on over here,” noting that part of the company’s struggles right now is because it’s keeping a vast majority of its 45,000-person workforce at home. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Now some may view this as karma and due justice after all the data security scandals at the company, but it is still no great if a company like this struggle. It’s hard to actually believe that any company of this size could struggle and while it’s likely they will weather this storm, it does give you an indication of how tough this time can be for even the largest companies and now you can only imagine how much more difficult it will be for the smaller companies out there.
Last Updated: March 25, 2020
