2023-04-27 15:45:46
- Shiona McCallam
- Technology correspondent
Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, announced a profit of $5.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, exceeding expectations for a period in which many jobs were cut.
The company said that artificial intelligence helps achieve good results in all departments of the company.
Revenue totaled $28.6 billion, while the number of people using Facebook per month rose to just under three billion.
“Our company continues to grow,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
“We’ve also become more efficient so we can build better products faster, and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver on our long-term vision,” he added.
Zuckerberg told investors that Meta sees “an opportunity to bring AI derivatives to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful.”
While offering few details, Zuckerberg said Meta is “exploring chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, visual content creation tools for Facebook and Instagram posts and ads, and over time video and multimedia uses as well.”
Mita established the Facebook Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research in 2013, but it has not made much progress in this field so far, as have some other major technology companies such as Microsoft.
But Zuckerberg insisted that Meta “is no longer behind in building the infrastructure for artificial intelligence.” He said that its own artificial intelligence products will be released in the coming months.
He added that this step would not be at the expense of Metaverse, the virtual reality project for Meta.
Meta’s Reality Labs division reported a net loss of $4 billion in the most recent quarter.
The company said it expects “annual operating cost losses to increase in 2023”.
However, “the saying that Meta is moving away from Metaverse” isn’t accurate, Zuckerberg said, adding that he still plans to unveil a new Quest VR headset later this year.
Reducing costs pays off
The positive financial numbers coincide with a period when Meta has shrunk jobs and projects. Zuckerberg said the goal was to turn 2023 into a “year of efficiency”.
Meta has been the most aggressive of the big tech companies in the US when it comes to downsizing, cutting a quarter of its global workforce, and more than 20,000 jobs, in just a few months.
“The efficiency year is off to a stronger-than-expected start for Meta,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Debra Ahu Williamson.
“In this economic environment and following the disaster in 2022, 3% annual revenue growth is an achievement,” she added.
Zuckerberg called 2022 a “modest wake-up call” and said it would be wise to “prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.”
Ben Barringer, of investment management firm Quilter Cheviot, said: “Hats off to Mark Zuckerberg and Meta given the turnaround in the business over the past six months.
“The year of efficiency that Zuckerberg likes to talk regarding is paying off. These results powerfully exceed expectations.”
1682630912
#Facebook #Meta #earnings #exceed #expectations
