Facebook Q4 - 3.3 Billion MAUs

Facebook came out with earnings that comfortably beat the street's expectations , but this was overshadowed by management's tone about future earnings. The social media company said that the pandemic won't last forever, and changes to targeted online advertising could impact the company in the short-term as it adapts.

Facebook has 3.3 billion (roughly half the world's population) monthly active users across all its platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp), up from 3.21 billion in the previous quarter. This is all thanks to pandemic induced lockdowns that have forced people to spend more time on their phones to connect with friends and family.

Revenue was $28.1 billion for the quarter, with net income being $11.2 billion as companies spent on online ads and individuals spent on their market places on both Instagram and Facebook. Instagram now accounts for 49% of Facebook's North American advertising revenues, its most lucrative market.

Apple will require all apps with targeted advertising to get explicit user permission to track their activity, which will come with an opt out option. Facebook has rolled out this internally, using WhatsApp as a guinea pig, and was met with some pushback. However, thanks to WhatsApp being a strong brand, weekly downloads are back to over 10 million now.

Apple is sending a signal that they're the safest mobile device company in the world, which will help push its sales up, while indirectly competing with Facebook and other third-party apps like Google Maps that track us. This is a non-event until we see how it's rolled out, for now we watch both companies with keen interest.