How many dollars do you make for Facebook?

No, this is not about how much money you can make from Facebook content, or on Facebook. On the contrary. How much money do you make for Facebook? The answer is public, charted in the company’s fresh-published 2020 first-quarter report. According to this, the average Facebook user on planet Earth brought $6.95 in revenue in the first quarter.

But the differences are huge. While Internet users from the U.S. or Canada generated more than $34 on average, the “rest of world” made only two dollars. (This could be mainly Africa and Latin America.) Even the European continent is only a third as profitable for Facebook as North America. (Only $10.5 per user here.) Most of the revenue comes from advertising.

The first quarter has brought a decline in Facebook revenue. Both per person and in total. Part of this quarter has already been passed by with coronavirus outages in many countries. But in other years, the first quarter also showed modest revenues. (There is no Christmas, New Year, or holiday season during this period.) But the number of regularly active users has also increased, more than in previous quarters. (The number of daily active users grew from 1.66 billion to 1.73 billion. Monthly active users count, from 2.5 billion to 2.6 billion.)

Internet giants and micro-entrepreneurs

Facebook isn’t alone, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and Microsoft have also released a pretty good quarterly report. The coronavirus quarantine is chaining many hundreds of millions of people to the Internet. This favors internet businesses, at least big ones. But that’s already priced in the shares. See our article about the performance of stock indices this year. (Are You Sure You Will Buy Stocks in 2020? – Chart of the Day) Shares now don’t seem cheap at all, after bouncing back of the March lows. In the tech sector, several titles are moving at last year’s “pre-virus” levels or higher.

How much income will be left for small online entrepreneurs, freelancers, passive income businesses? Such as professional Facebook marketers, bloggers, YouTubers, Amazon vendors, online educators? We can’t know. If high levels of unemployment become persistent, they will probably have to face even more competitors online. This can push down the level of revenue from passive income sources. Although, these were difficult to get even before the coronavirus. (See our article: Is It A Myth? – The Genuine Truth About Passive Income)

Cryptos Can’t Beat Facebook Either

Fans and developers of cryptocurrencies have a dream. Social media or other media sites, where users get revenue from their work in the form of cryptocurrencies. While their data is not sold either. Not only the large, multinational companies get rich in the content produced by users.

Such experiments have been going on for years and new ones are coming (Steem, Minds, Mastodon, Hive, Voice.com, etc.) For now, yet, there is no sign that they will be successful. Typically, they can only seduce a few tens of thousands of active users.

(Data sources: Here or here)

Disclaimer

I’m not a certified financial advisor nor a certified financial analyst, accountant nor lawyer. The contents on my site and in my posts are for informational and entertainment purposes and reflecting my collection of data, ideas, opinions. Please, make your proper research or consult your advisors before making any investment or financial or legal decisions.

(Photos: Pixabay.com.)