Hyderabad: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reported a more than two-fold increase in first-quarter earnings, driven by an increase in advertising revenue and an increase of 6% in the average cost of advertising across its platforms. However, its stock price dropped sharply after hours following disappointing revenue guidance.
Meta now has 3.24 billion family daily active people (DAP) on average across its family of apps, an increase of 7 per cent year-over-year. Instagram Threads has reached more than 150 million monthly active users -- up from 130 million in February.
In an earnings call with analysts, Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Instagram, reels and video continue to drive engagement, with reels alone now making up 50 per cent of the time that's spent within the app.
"It's been a good start to the year," said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. "The new version of Meta AI with Llama 3 is another step towards building the world's leading AI. We're seeing healthy growth across our apps and we continue making steady progress building the metaverse as well."
Meta Platforms Inc. earned $12.37 billion, or $4.71 per share, in the January-March period. That's up from $5.71 billion, or $2.20 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 27% to $36.46 billion from $28.65 billion.
Meta also said it expects its 2024 capital expenses to be higher than anticipated due to its investments in artificial intelligence. It is forecasting expenses in the range of $35 billion to $40 billion, up from its earlier guidance of $30 billion to $37 billion.
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