Ads Business Losing Due To The COVID-19 Pandemic, Facebook Opens Up

Illustrations (Unspales / @ timbennettcreative)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 outbreak is not only detrimental to mankind, the Facebook advertising business has also become a victim of the global pandemic. This is despite the fact that the use of these social media platforms has skyrocketed when there are calls for a lockdown in the United States (US).

Mark Zuckerberg's social networking company based in Silicon Valley, USA saw tremendous traffic on its various apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messanger, as users turned to social media to fill their spare time during the unprecedented lockdown calls. around the world. But at the same time the advertising business is essentially below the critical line.

"In many of the countries worst hit by the virus, total messaging has increased by more than 50 percent over the past month. In Italy, one of the epicenters of the pandemic, Facebook has seen time in group calls (calls with three or more participants) increase by more than 1,000 percent. during the last month, "said the Facebook analyst as quoted by CNBC, Wednesday, March 25.

Even so, Facebook actually lost a lot because of the absence of ad revenue on its platform. The average person who uses Facebook only interacts with family and friends through the story feature and writing status.

"A lot of the increase in traffic is happening to our messaging service, but we are also seeing more and more people using our feed and story products to get updates from their family and friends. At the same time, our business is also being adversely affected as much (as are many). social media) around the world. We are not monetizing many services where we are seeing increased engagement, and we have seen a weakening in our advertising business in countries that are taking aggressive action to reduce the spread of COVID-19. "

In other words, Facebook is not making any money because there are not many advertisers. This is due to the economic impact related to COVID-19 and lockdown. Meanwhile, according to a Reuters report, until the final quarter of 2019 the number of daily Facebook and Instagram users reached 288 million people. But not with the use of its advertising features.

This social media network with a blue logo admits that during the lockdown period, they and their employees maintained stability throughout the surge in use of the platform. It becomes more challenging than usual, now that most of their employees are working from home.

"We are monitoring usage patterns carefully, making our systems more efficient, and increasing capacity as needed. To help alleviate potential network congestion, we are temporarily reducing the quality for videos on Facebook and Instagram in certain regions. Lastly, we are testing and further preparations so that we can quickly respond to any problems that may arise with our service, "he concluded.

Previously it was reported, after YouTube and Netflix had to reduce the quality of their videos when streaming. Facebook and Instagram have also done the same thing for its users in Europe.

This decision was taken to anticipate a surge in internet users during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, more people and students have to stay and work from home to avoid spreading COVID-19.