In the most recent quarter, Meta recorded a $7.8 billion profit on $32 billion in revenue as the number of monthly Facebook users increased to 3.03 billion.



San Francisco: Facebook parent company Meta, supported by a resurgent digital ad business, topped market estimates for quarterly results on Wednesday.

In the most recent quarter, Meta recorded a $7.8 billion profit on $32 billion in revenue as the number of monthly Facebook users increased to 3.03 billion.

"We had a good quarter," Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, stated on an earnings call.

We have the most intriguing roadmap I've seen in a while, and we continue to see strong engagement across all of our products.

Due to the weakening economy, which prompted advertisers to cut back on spending, and Apple's data privacy improvements, which allowed users to reject ad targeting, the foundation of Meta's business, the year 2022 had been difficult for Meta.

However, Meta's share price has had a phenomenal 2023, which Zuckerberg said in January would be the "year of efficiency," just like the other major US internet businesses.

"Meta's year of efficiency is off to a strong start with two consecutive quarters of positive revenue growth and the first quarter of double-digit revenue growth since late 2021," said Insider Intelligence analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

Williamson continued, "When it comes to Meta right now, there's a lot to feel happy about.

In trading after market hours, Meta shares increased by more than 7%, reaching $320.32.

The company reported that the number of adverts on its various applications increased by 34% year over year in the second quarter in its results announcement.

Analysts observed the increased interest from marketers in Reels, the TikTok-inspired video format, as well as a less depressing economic environment that encouraged marketing expenditures.

According to Zuckerberg, Meta is making "good progress" in monetizing Reels, with the short videos being viewed more than 200 billion times daily on Facebook and Instagram.

VR fees

Since last November, the corporation has laid off tens of thousands of employees as a result of an unprecedented round of cost-cutting brought on by Meta's pledge of expenditure restraint.

At the end of June, Meta reported having 71,469 employees, 14% less than at the same time last year.

The business has come under fire for its bet on the metaverse, a virtual reality environment that Meta believes will be the next online frontier and which caused it to rebrand from Facebook in 2021.

Despite the fact that Apple will enter the market some time next year with the launch of its pricey VisionPro headset, this has so far proven to be a bad bet with buyers so far unenthusiastic about the technology.

The slow rate of adoption of the metaverse, according to Zuckerberg, is a "somewhat sobering signal," but he is still sure that it will be a platform for computers in the future.

According to Zuckerberg, the metaverse and AI are still priority at Meta.

In its earnings report, Meta stated that it anticipated its operating losses at the division in charge of VR to "increase meaningfully" over the coming year.

The business has acted quickly to capitalize on the commotion at Twitter, which has since changed its name to X.

Although the long-term interest of the users has not been established, Meta hastened the release of Threads earlier this month, a text-only program that saw more than 100 million downloads in only days.

Zuckerberg stated of Threads, "We saw unprecedented growth out of the gate and, more importantly, we're seeing more people coming back daily than I'd expected."

"Now that we're concentrating on retention and improving the fundamentals, I'm really pleased with the direction we're going in."

Zuckerberg's approach to AI is distinct from Microsoft's and its collaboration with OpenAI.

Instead, Meta has embraced a more "open source" strategy and made its Llama generative AI technology accessible to researchers and businesses for customization to their own purposes.

Questions on the earnings call indicated that investors are eager to see how Meta increases the usage of generative AI in its products.

In a recent podcast, Zuckerberg mentioned that his business is developing an AI platform that will make it easier for creators and advertisers to collaborate.