For years, Facebook’s sales have grown steadily, continued to grow, and despite being hit by scandals over privacy and misinformation, it went against the law of gravity.
not anymore.
On Wednesday, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, reported quarterly revenues down 1% year-on-year.It was the first time that the income of a social media giant has declined since then. Published Ten years ago, while trying to build a new frontier for digital communications, we faced increased regulatory oversight and economic turmoil.
Meta’s second quarter revenues fell from $ 29.07 billion in the previous year to $ 28.82 billion. Profit was $ 6.69 billion, down 36% year-on-year. According to data compiled by FactSet, Wall Street analysts predicted a profit of $ 7.04 billion against a revenue of $ 28.9 billion.
The result further exacerbated what was a tragic day for Meta. Meta was sued by the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday over an agreement to acquire a virtual reality company called Within. The proceedings directly hit the ambitions of Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg has spent billions of dollars creating a world of immersive social interaction in the “Metaverse,” a combination of virtual reality and augmented reality. He is tied to commerce and online relationships.
Zuckerberg told investors, engineers and others that it would take years for his vision for the Metaverse to come true, and that the effort would be costly. Some investors are skeptical that efforts will pay off in the long run.
Still, Meta’s revenue report had some positive points. According to the company, the number of daily active people increased by 4% year-on-year to 2.88 billion. This exceeded analysts’ expectations that the company was losing visitors. The Facebook app has also seen user growth in the United States. Some believed that the area was saturated.
Zuckerberg said he was encouraged by other areas of Meta’s business driving growth and engagement, such as Reels video products, a feature within Instagram similar to TikTok’s video offering. He said his investment in artificial intelligence recommended algorithms also prompted more people to use the service for longer periods of time, the company said.
“It’s good to see a positive trajectory in engagement trends this quarter from investments in products such as reels and AI,” he said in a statement. “We are energizing and focusing on the priorities of key companies that unleash both the short-term and long-term opportunities of companies and those who use Meta and our services.”
