While for many companies the COVID-19 pandemic meant closing their doors, for many others it meant a forced move to the online world and searching platforms like Facebook for a new window to sell their products and services, which for the social network was translated in a 22% increase in income.
Facebook released its financial results for the last three months of 2020 and the end of the year, where it details that its revenues closed at $ 85.9 billion; In the last three months of last year alone, Mark Zuckerberg’s company brought in $ 27.187 million, compared to the same time period in 2019.
According to the company’s data, the strongest gains came from online advertising and the wave of electronic and social commerce that occurred through its family of apps ( Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram) during the pandemic.
After publishing the results, Zuckerberg said that Facebook was one of the tools with which many businesses managed to stay afloat.
“We had a strong year as people and businesses continued to use our services during these challenging times. I am excited about the product plan we have for 2021 as we build new economic opportunities for our community, “the Facebook CEO said in a statement.
Regarding the number of new users, the company shared that at the end of 2020, 2.6 billion people in the world used its family of apps, at least once a day, which meant an increase of 15% compared to their numbers of 2019.
David Wehner, Facebook’s CFO added that the social network has benefited from eCommerce and the need for people to search for products, rather than services, during the time of lockdown.
“I think we have benefited from two economic trends: on the one hand eCommerce and on the other the need for products rather than services, such as travel. Looking forward we see a moderation in these trends but it will have a boost in our digital advertising business “, said.
Although the numbers for the social network look favorable, they also expect that some of the challenges that they will have to overcome in 2021 will have to do with blocking cookies in updates to Apple’s operating system, iOS 14, as this could impact their income in digital advertising.