Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg speaks during a Facebook Community Boost event at the Knight Center on December 18, 2018 in Miami, Florida.
Facebook is offering $100 million in cash grants and ad credits to small businesses suffering from stoppages due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The Small Business Grants Program, revealed in a blog post on Tuesday morning, was created to keep workers working, help with rent costs, connect with more customers, cover operational costs.
"We've listened to small businesses to understand how we can best help them," COO Sheryl Sandberg said on her Facebook page Tuesday morning. "We've heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can't come to work."
Tech giants like Facebook are coming under more pressure to save society and where government and politicians might not, as the spread of the virus gets worse and the possibility of the U.S. heading into a recession becomes more likely.
It will be available to 30,000 eligible small businesses across 30 countries; by that math, each would receive an average of $3,333, which could be more meaningful to some than others depending on staff sizes. In the U.S., small businesses make up 99.9 percent of all businesses.
Facebook will begin taking grant applications "in the coming weeks."
As part of the announcement, the company also introduced virtual training to support businesses that may not have prepared to operate in a remote, distributed setting as so many are doing now.
Facebook has spent the last few years bulking up its merchant (and payments) business as social platforms turned into marketplaces. Last year it enabled instant buying from merchants directly within Instagram posts and stories and it enabled Facebook Pay for Marketplace.
It's unlikely the already highly scrutinized Facebook will introduce a small business capital program, of which its marketplace peer, Amazon, has been highly successful, but Silicon Valley, along with banks, has an opportunity to service small businesses in need of credit over the coming months. The earliest fintech companies, marketplace lenders like Lending Club and Prosper, were born as a response to the 2008 financial crisis, which dried up small business credit from banks. Silicon Valley financial services companies like Square, Stripe, and PayPal have come for business banking customers since then.
"They're going to be as dominant as JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs in this game," said Dave Donovan, executive vice president of financial services at Publicis Sapient, of the FAMGA companies, citing the Apple partnership with Goldman Sachs and Amazon's partnership with Chase as examples.
By allowing the partnership, "Amazon is saying 'we'll open up our customer base so that you can provide them with loans, and they'll go and procure more product on our platform.' With the Apple card, it's the same thing. Goldman has no problem underwriting risk and taking on the regulation."
Donavan also said banking networks will examine how they can help facilitate payments for medication at places like CVS, Walgreens, and Target, as well as, food delivery from Amazon Prime and Walmart.
Facebook has also been tirelessly working with the Libra Association since last summer on a new digital currency that would support "a payment network that makes money easier to access and supports merchants and consumers everywhere" and advocate for "transparent fees and easy access to capital" — according to the CEO of one of the Association's latest partner additions, the e-commerce giant Shopify.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
