Meta struggles: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner’s profits halved
Owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Meta, reported a fall in its revenue for the third quarter driven by plummeting ad revenue.
The social media giant’s intake was four per cent down on last year’s third quarter, from £29bn to £27bn, while its costs and expenses were up almost 20 per cent. Income was down 46 per cent.
Sales of $27.7bn were down 4 per cent from last year, while profits of $4.4bn were halved, driven by falling advertising revenue amid a global slowdown and widening inflation.
Meta’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned about “near-term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth.”
“We’re approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritisation and efficiency that will help us navigate the current environment and emerge an even stronger company.”
The platform’s profits have now fallen in four consecutive quarters for the first time in almost a decade, driven by tightening ad budgets.
According to the Times, shares in Meta dropped by 19.3 per cent, or $25, to $104.81 per share this morning.
Meta’s owner Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook to post a personal message, signalling the social media titan will shrink in size. He said “in 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas.”
While “some teams will grow meaningfully.. most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year. In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”
According to the Telegraph, Zuckerberg’s net worth has fallen by about $85bn this year, while $66bn was wiped off the company’s valuation on Wednesday.
Zuckerberg said on Facebook, across the site, Instagram and Whatsapp, Meta now reaches 3.7bn people a month. Daily users on Facebook increased to 1.98bn on average, up three per cent, while monthly was up to 2.96bn, up two per cent.