Facebook has shrugged off the pandemic to announce double-digit revenue growth for the second quarter of 2020 and better-than-expected user gains, sending its stock leaping almost 8% in after-hours trading.
On Thursday, the Silicon Valley-headquartered social networking giant announced its Q2 2020 financial earnings. The company beat Wall Street's expectations across the board — including revenues of $18.69 billion, up 11% compared to the same time period last year, and a growth in daily active users of Facebook to 1.79 billion people.
The results reveal just how ably Facebook has weathered the coronavirus crisis, despite the associated economic downturn prompting waves of layoffs in other industries. The company's business is continuing to grow and attract more users than ever before.
The company is facing an ongoing advertiser boycott over its policing of hate speech, but despite that is still expecting roughly 10% year-over-year revenue growth for Q3 — similar to in Q2.
Here are the key numbers, as well as what Wall Street was expecting (estimates via Bloomberg):
- Revenue: $18.69 billion, up 11% year-on-year ($17.31 billion expected)
- Earnings Per Share (EPS) GAAP: $1.80 ($1.39 expected)
- Daily Active Facebook Users: 1.79 billion, up 12% year-on-year (1.74 billion expected)
- Monthly Active Facebook Users: 2.7 billion, up 12% year-on-year (2.63 billion expected)
Facebook is currently facing intense political and regulatory scrutiny over issues ranging from content moderation to alleged antitrust violations. It is also in the midst of an unprecedented advertiser boycott over to its approach to hate speech.
That boycott formally began in July (after Q2 2020 ended), and the company cited it as one of four reasons that it expects its ad revenue growth rate to be roughly 10% in the third quarter, along with "continued macroeconomic uncertainty" and "headwinds related to ad targeting and measurement."
It's less than the bumper growth Facebook has enjoyed in some previous years — but demonstrates that the ad boycott is not a grievous wound to the company.
Facebook also now officially has more than 3 billion monthly users across its "family" of apps around the world, citing 3.14 billion at the end of Q2.
