Facebook said that despite a very public advertising boycott, the company still plans to hit its revenue goals for the year and will largely be unaffected by the campaign targeting its content moderation policies, according to a second-quarter earnings report released Thursday.
Facebook said that ad revenue growth continued to grow 10% during the first few weeks of July, roughly the same as its pace in the second quarter.
“We expect our full quarter year-over-year ad revenue growth rate for the third quarter of 2020 will be roughly similar to this July performance,” the company said in the earnings report. “There are several factors contributing to this outlook, including […] the impact from certain advertisers pausing spend on our platforms related to the current boycott, which is reflected in our July trends.”
The Stop Hate For Profit advertising boycott campaign grew in June and captured headlines as more than 500 companies joined in a pledge to withdraw their money from the social media platform in protest of Facebook’s handling of hate speech and misinformation.
Household names like ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, retailers Patagonia, REI, and North Face, as well as telecommunications company Verizon were all on the roster of companies calling on Facebook to make a change. After the boycott became mainstream, advertisers met with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but were ultimately disappointed, telling Digital Trends they believe the CEO is not committed to making any meaningful change.
Zuckerberg later reportedly dismissed the boycott, saying “all these advertisers will be back.”
The coalition was meant to show Facebook that advertisers could have a say in the way Facebook conducts itself by pulling back cash and making a dent in its financials.
But Thursday’s earnings report suggests Facebook is too big to feel any financial pain. In the second quarter of 2020, Facebook posted $5.17 billion in profit, nearly doubling its profits from the same period last year.
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
I have lost count of how many times I have gone to bed thinking I will finally sleep on time, only to somehow end up scrolling Instagram or X again. A few minutes turn into an hour, then another, and before I notice, it is 2 or 3 a.m. The next morning, I am usually annoyed with myself because I could have just slept and felt considerably better for the day ahead.
It is also a surprisingly hard habit to beat. Knowing you should put the phone down does not always help once it is already in your hand. Brick Night is a new gadget built around that exact problem. Instead of relying on you to remember to turn on an app blocker, it automatically restricts selected apps and websites when your phone enters your chosen sleep space during the hours you set.