Despite Ad Boycotts Facebook Sees a Hike in Quarterly Profit

On Thursday, Facebook reported that its quarterly profit had nearly doubled and users grew despite a boycott by advertisers and the pandemic-induced economic turmoil. As the number of people using the platform monthly rose to 2.7 billion Facebook said it made a profit of $5.2 billion on $18.7 billion in revenue in the recently ended quarter.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said, “This was a strong quarter for us, especially compared to what we expected at the start.”

Shares were up six percent in after-market trades following the release of the earnings figures in the Silicon Valley-based technology giant.

According to Zuckerberg the number of people using the tech giant’s overall “family” of apps including WhatsApp and Messenger each month topped three billion.

Zuckerberg said he could not predict when Facebook employees would return to their offices, in light of the surge in coronavirus cases. He further added, “It is incredibly disappointing because it seems like the US could have avoided this current surge in cases if our government had handled this better.”

In the next five to ten years Facebook expects at least its half employees to work from home.

Zuckerberg sought to highlight the importance of technology firms during the crisis, as he recounted his testimony at a Congressional antitrust hearing along with CEOs of Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet at a panel investigating market dominance.

“As I said yesterday the tech industry is an American success story. Products we build have changed the world for the better and improved people’s lives,” Zuckerberg said.

Due to the pandemic use of Facebook has surged as people staying close to home turn to the platform to virtually connect with friends and loved ones.

Zuckerberg said, “Imagine going through this pandemic two decades ago when the internet was nascent Facebook didn’t even exist.”

He remained adamant that Facebook does not want hate speech on the social network, despite criticism that the social network does not do enough to fight misinformation and vitriol.

The boycott aimed at pressing Facebook to act on toxic and hateful content has the support of more than 900 companies and organizations.

Zuckerberg said he was “troubled” by calls for regulators to make it more difficult to target advertising, saying such a move would hurt businesses trying to connect with customers, especially during economic turmoil and this would reduce opportunities for small businesses so much that would probably be felt at a macroeconomic level.”