Welcome to "#SocialStocks," The Fly's weekly recap of Wall Street's reactions to social media stock news.
FACEBOOK LAUNCHES HEALTH RESEARCH TOOLS: On April 6, KX Jin, Head of Health, and Laura McGorman, Data for Good at Facebook (FB), wrote in a blog post: "Flattening the global COVID-19 curve is a challenge that takes all of us. As people distance themselves to protect their communities and healthcare workers save lives on the front lines, hospitals are working to get the right resources, and public health systems are looking to put the right guidelines in place. To do that, they need better information on whether preventive measures are working and how the virus may spread. As part of "Facebook's Data for Good program," we offer maps on population movement that researchers and nonprofits are already using to understand the coronavirus crisis, using aggregated data to protect people's privacy. We heard from them how valuable this information can be in responding to COVID-19, and today we're announcing new tools to support their work: Three new types of Disease Prevention Maps to help inform disease forecasting efforts and protective measures, additionally the company said, it is providing new tools for disease prevention as well as launching a survey for health researchers to track COVID-19."
FACEBOOK LAUNCHES MESSENGER ON DESKTOP: On April 2, Facebook announced on its site that it is launching a Messenger app for MacOS and Windows so users "can video chat on your computer and stay connected with friends and family all over the world." The company added in its post: "Now more than ever, people are using technology to stay in touch with the people they care about, even when physically apart. Over the past month, we saw more than a 100% increase in people using their desktop browser for audio and video calling on Messenger. Now with apps for MacOS and Windows, the best of Messenger is coming to desktop, including unlimited and free group video calls."
TWITTER DELETES 20K FAKE ACCOUNTS: On April 3, Twitter (TWTR) said it has deleted 20,000 fake accounts linked to governments of Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Honduras, and Indonesia for an "attempt to undermine the public conversation." Yoel Roth, the head of site integrity, said the removal of the accounts was part of the company's ongoing "work to detect and investigate state-backed information operations." Of the accounts removed on Thursday, 8,558 were linked to the Serbian Progressive party of Aleksandar Vucic, the president. Twitter also removed a network of 5,350 accounts linked to the Saudi monarchy operating out of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
PINTEREST REPORTS PRELIMINARY REVENUE, WITHDRAWS FY20 GUIDANCE: On April 7, Pinterest (PINS) provided preliminary financial results for the quarter ended March 31. Pinterest has also determined to withdraw its financial guidance for FY20 due to the growing uncertainty of the impact of COVID-19 on the global operating and economic environment and the resulting effect on advertiser demand. Based on information available to it through the date of this statement, Pinterest preliminarily expects revenue for the quarter ended March 31 in the range of $269 million to $272 million. For the quarter ended March 31, it also expects global monthly active users in the range of 365 million to 367 million, with 89 million to 90 million in the U.S. and 276 million to 277 million internationally. Pinterest ended the first quarter with a strong balance sheet, with approximately $1.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities on March 31, 2020, no financial debt, and an undrawn $500 million revolving credit facility.
PINTEREST COO LEAVING: On April 7, Pinterest announced that Francoise Brougher, the company's COO, would be leaving Pinterest, effective as of April 7, and Todd Morgenfeld will assume her responsibilities.
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