Here’s what happens when you ban users at a faster rate than are joining.
Facebook is losing users in its best market, North America. According to a third-quarter earnings report, the company’s surge in growth at the beginning of the year is gradually dwindling.
“As expected, in the third quarter of 2020, we saw Facebook DAUs and MAUs in the US & Canada decline slightly from the second quarter 2020 levels, which were elevated due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the company wrote in a press release.
Lockdowns due to the coronavirus and stay-at-home guidelines initially increased Facebook users.
In North America, the company reported a user base of 196 million, down from 198 million in the last quarter. Facebook expects the number to keep dropping.
“In the fourth quarter of 2020, we expect this trend to continue and that the number of DAUs and MAUs in the US & Canada will be flat or slightly down compared to the third quarter of 2020.”
However, the dwindling of user numbers is not happening in all parts of the world. The company is recording new numbers in Asia and the rest of the world.
Additionally, the decrease in North American users in the third quarter did not translate to losing revenue. Facebook reported $21.4 billion in revenue, which is a 22% increase compared to last year. Revenue from ads was $18 billion, which was better than expected and meant that the ads boycott organized by some of Facebook’s largest advertisers, due to the company’s refusal to further censor President Trump, had negligible impact.
