Facebook beats 2nd quarter revenue expectations even as ad industry struggles


Pretty much every business suffered in 2020's second financial quarter. Well, except Facebook.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating effect on the U.S. GDP, pushing it down 9.5 percent from the first quarter and 32.9 percent from the year before. But Facebook's revenue still grew 11 percent from Q1 to Q2, beating economists' expectations, the company revealed Thursday.
Facebook's 11 percent revenue growth is the smallest quarterly growth it has seen since it became a public company. Previously, its first quarter growth of 18 percent was its smallest. But on average, analysts only expected Facebook's revenue to grow to $17.3 billion in Q2, making its $18.6 billion reality a win, Bloomberg notes. Facebook's profit growth of $5.18 billion also meant shareholders made out well with a $1.80 gain per share, beating estimates of $1.39.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The growth came even though Facebook started facing a major advertiser boycott in July. Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Unilever, and other huge companies stopped buying ads on Facebook and other social media sites over their failure to appropriately combat hate speech on their platforms.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress on Wednesday for an anti-trust hearing, where he faced questions about how the company's digital ad model contributed to the decline of local news, and also Twitter, for some reason.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year