Hey Snackers,
The National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma put its head of security in charge of its Twitter account during the museum's closure — Tim's debut into the world of social media is excellent (Hashtag John Wayne). Thanks, Tim.
US stocks continued to rebound sharply on word the relief-inducing $2T stimulus bill is inches away from passing (a big hurdle was cleared super late Tuesday night). As markets closed yesterday, the bill was being held up in the Senate on last-minute disagreements over unemployment benefits.
Let's get fiscal, fiscal... The White House and Senate struck a deal for a huge $2T economic stimulus package — it's 2.5X bigger than the stimulus given after the 2008 financial crisis. 90% of Americans will be eligible to receive full or partial payments, according to estimates. Since it's being paid to you (courtesy of your tax dollars), we'll itemize the receipt:
I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a... mammoth $2T economic rescue bill. We didn't forget there's still a key $1.1T left to account for:
This (partly) fills the giant spending hole... Consumer spending + government spending makes up a huge part of America's Gross Domestic Product. $2T is around 10% of the total spending/production in the US each year (aka, 10% of GDP). In 2019, the US gov spent $4.45T — this stimulus alone is nearly half that, and is meant to offset spending and income that doesn't happen because of the virus. And it still might not be enough.
Well, this is awkward... We're familiar with the concept that if a product is free, our attention likely is the product. With everyone cooped inside because of coronavirus, virtual communication is more important than ever. So is not going outside. That means way less shopping/spending, and puts ad-reliant social media giants in an awkward situation:
But social media relies on ad sales... While people need social media more than ever, advertisers have never needed it less. Marketers won't waste big marketing bucks on ads if you won't buy their products anyway (no one cares about the new spring eyeshadow palette when all you need is a robe to stay home). So Facebook and Twitter haven't translated the usage surge into ad $$$.
We could face ad-pocalypse 2020... When spending drops during economic downturns, so do ad sales. Twitter revealed its ad sales may have dunked as much as 20% in March. Facebook expects something similar. The bright spot for ad-reliant media companies is that they might retain this larger/more engaged user base when the economy rebounds. But think about the 2 types of companies and their demand for ads: