1.08.2024 00:24
(Akt. 1.08.2024 00:24)
Strong numbers for Facebook parent Meta
©APA/AFP
Robust advertising revenues have given Meta a surprisingly strong quarterly result. In addition, the Facebook parent company exceeded market expectations with its outlook published on Wednesday. Due to the high costs of developing artificial intelligence (AI), the online network also specified its investment targets for the full year.
Unlike Microsoft or Google’s parent company Alphabet, the prospect of higher spending did not initially trigger another sell-off of Meta’s stock. It rose by eight percent in after-hours trading on Wall Street. The company had left its forecast for total spending unchanged at $96 billion to $99 billion.
In the second quarter, Meta’s group sales rose by 22 percent to 39.07 billion dollars (36.08 billion euros). At the same time, the operating profit margin increased by nine percentage points to 38 percent. For the current quarter, the company forecast revenues of between 38.5 and 41 billion dollars. “Given the healthy profit margins, investors should have no problems with the company’s investment plans,” said analyst Max Willens from the research house eMarketer.
Unlike competitors such as OpenAI or Google, Meta offers its self-developed AI “Llama” as “open source”, where the program code is freely accessible. The hope behind this is that this will create its own software ecosystem that binds users more closely to their own online networks. A few days ago, Meta presented the latest Llama version.
Through the planned integration into corporate services such as Instagram or WhatsApp, “Meta AI” could become one of the most used chatbots in the world, predicted analyst Jean-Paul van Oudheusden from the online broker eToro. “AI tools could further increase the time spent on social media and thus increase advertising revenue. Paid AI upgrade options offer additional potential for increasing sales.”
