Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, could point to better results than expected in the first quarter of this year. Although sales were below expectations, user growth and profitability were higher.
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The Meta share had fallen 3.21 percent at closing time on Wall Street on Wednesday, but immediately after the release on Wednesday night, the share rises 13 percent.
The company’s profitability was higher than expected, and the company delivered earnings per share of $ 2.72 per share, compared to the expected $ 2.59.
The number of daily users of Facebook also grew more than expected, and there were around 31 million more daily users at the end of March than at the end of the previous quarter.
– We have made progress this quarter, across a number of the company’s priorities, and we are still confident of the long-term opportunities and growth that our products will provide, says Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.
– More people use our services today than ever before, he says.
Despite this, turnover was somewhat lower than expected in advance. Revenue growth was 6.6 percent compared to the same quarter in 2021.
Hard hit by competitors
Facebook has been hit hard by Apple’s recent changes to its privacy policy. Apple has made it harder to track users of its products. This has affected Facebook’s ability to sell targeted advertising, which accounts for a very large share of their revenue.
There was great excitement about Meta’s results, after the share was beaten after the previous presentation of results. Meta had the largest loss of value in a day for a single company ever, when the stock crashed on 3 February.
The fall was linked to the company at the time presenting weak prospects for further sales, and increasing competition from, among others, TikTok.
For the first time ever, the figures for the last quarter of 2021 showed that Facebook lost users, and it was not the only dangerous sign:
The meta-share is down over 48 percent so far this year.
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