Facebook Cancels F8 Developer Conference Due to Coronavirus Concerns

Social media giant Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) announced that it has canceled this year’s F8 developer conference due to fears caused by the coronavirus spread. The F8 developer conference is the biggest event hosted by the company, where it brings together more than 5000 developers and also entrepreneurs from all over the world.

This shows the devastating effect caused by coronavirus outbreak in the business sector. With the United States recently having reported a case from an unknown origin in Northern California, Facebook could not leave anything into chance.

The announcement has negatively affected the Facebook (FB) stock which has been bleeding together with other benchmark S&P 500 companies. At the time of the market closing, the stocks were trading $189.71 with the bears showing the tenacity to push further if the coronavirus effect continues fueling it. In the pre-market, FB has lost even more. Its price is $186.78.

In the past week, the shares have defied the strong rise that had dominated the chart market for the better part of 2019 and 2020. With a recent report showing the social media company is on the top list of companies hit hard by phishing attempts, it just adds salt to the wound.

What Next for Facebook after Canceling F8 Due to Coronavirus

F8 developer conference is a major event which Facebook uses to bring together developers and investors in one roof but this year the coronavirus has spoilt the plans. For years, the event has been successful with no glitch, making Facebook have a good reputation not only in the social media world but also as a developer hub. However, in the years 2009, 2012, and also 2013, the conference was also not held for reasons given by Facebook.

The company has been hosting it in San Jose McEnery Convention Center, California after it was moved from San Francisco in 2016. In the past, Mark Zuckerberg has been the key speaker opening the event, where Facebook has in the past used the conference to introduce new features to the social media app and also make new announcements.

Now, with coronavirus at hand and threatening most international and big companies, Facebook is starting to feel the heat from the coronavirus outbreak. With the uncertainty hovering in the air, the coronavirus outbreak is slowly turning into a global pandemic that is interfering with normal daily activities.

Although Facebook is just taking precautionary measures, the investors who had faith in its stock market are now slowly backing off. In the long term, it will affect the yearly revenue and mostly the Q1 earnings.