Key Highlights from Facebook First Quarter 2020

Here are some key highlights from the Facebook First Quarter Results 2020 and the impact of COVID-19 on engagement and advertising revenue.

The Facebook First Quarter Results in 2020 show a positive increase in daily and monthly active users on Facebook and the family of apps but the pandemic as had a bleak impact on their monetized services.

First Quarter 2020 Operational and Other Financial Highlights

• Facebook daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.73 billion on average for March 2020, an increase of 11% year-over-year.

• Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 2.60 billion as of March 31, 2020, an increase of 10% year-over-year.

• Family daily active people (DAP) – DAP was 2.36 billion on average for March 2020, an increase of 12% year-over-year.

• Family monthly active people (MAP) – MAP was 2.99 billion as of March 31, 2020, an increase of 11% year-over-year.

• Capital expenditures – Capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, were $3.66 billion for the first quarter of 2020.

• Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities – Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $60.29 billion as of March 31, 2020. Following the end of the quarter, Facebook entered into an agreement to invest in Jio Platforms Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, for approximately $5.7 billion, and paid the $5.0 billion settlement amount due under their modified consent order with the FTC, which took effect in April 2020.

• Headcount – Headcount was 48,268 as of March 31, 2020, an increase of 28% year-over-year.

Also Read: Facebook launches Messenger Rooms

Impact of COVID-19

The business has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook expects the business performance will be impacted by external issues such as duration and efficacy of shelter-in-place orders, the effectiveness of economic stimuli around the world, and the fluctuations of currencies relative to the U.S. dollar.

• Engagement: The community metrics, including Facebook DAUs and MAUs and Family MAP and DAP, reflect increased engagement as people around the world sheltered in place used Facebook's products to connect with the people and organizations. The company expects that they will lose at least some of this increased engagement when various shelter-in-place restrictions are relaxed in the future.

• Revenue: Facebook experienced a significant reduction in the demand for advertising, as well as a related decline in the pricing of ads, over the last three weeks of the first quarter of 2020. Due to the increasing uncertainty in the business outlook, Facebook is not providing specific revenue guidance for the second quarter or full-year 2020, but a snapshot on revenue performance in the second quarter thus far. After the initial steep decrease in advertising revenue in March, they have seen signs of stability reflected in the first three weeks of April, where advertising revenue has been approximately flat compared to the same period a year ago, down from the 17% year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2020. The April trends reflect weakness across all of our user geographies as most of the major countries have had some sort of shelter-in-place guidelines in effect.

You can read more about the financial highlights here.

View the full report of Facebook Q1 2020 Results here below.