Facebook (FB)

Facebook's Fiscal Year '20 ended Dec. 31, and we're taking an early look to see how Q4 shaped up. Consumer mentions of downloading and using one of Facebook's suit of apps increased +3% YoY, but softened on a QoQ basis.  So user growth is stalling...how could it not? The key takeaway for this company? Monetization is going very well. Ad revenue in 20Q3 was $21.2 billion across 10 million active advertisers, bolstering total revenue +22% YoY.  While we can't track ad placements on Facebook, we can listen for signs of consumer conversion. And those continue to ramp.  Mentions of buying an item on Instagram or Facebook increased 47% YoY in Q4...and this growth was bolstered by Instagram.

Any lasting effects of new privacy updates (from Apple) remain to be seen, but for now one thing is clear: FB's eCommerce engine is firing on all cylinders after a successful holiday season.