Opinion: Coronavirus has turned the Facebook narrative

Facebook’s announcement on Tuesday that its business was being 'adversely affected' because of a 'weakening in our ads business' shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. — Reuters

The tension between the media and technology industries has long been characterised as a fight for users’ attention. The more of it they have, the greater the opportunity to sell new products and services.

The advertising technology giants Facebook Inc and Google have turned that into a US$200bil (RM868.76bil)-a-year business. Now that millions of people are stuck at home trying to isolate themselves from the coronavirus, there should be greater opportunity to secure their attention. Facebook’s particular vector for securing users’ attention is connecting them with others, and in the era of self-isolation digital connections have become a lifeline.