Despite the layoffs and metaverse deficit, Meta started the year with growing numbers

Good news for Mark Zuckerberg, in a year that was painting uphill. The results for the first quarter of 2023 have just been presented and the numbers have left the shareholders calm and have given them a breath to the dome.

The company shared updated information on the state of Meta and its applications, in its Q1 2023 earnings report, where its CEO smiled.

“We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow. Our work on artificial intelligence is paying off in our applications and businesses,” Zuckerberg said.

Meta has confirmed that more than 3 billion people use “at least” one of their applications every day, between Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and underline the growth of the Reels content format,

“We’re also becoming more efficient, so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver on our long-term vision,” explained the CEO.

In addition to the results report, Meta also shared data on the evolution of Facebook, which many considered already concluded.

The number of monthly active users on the social network inherits the growing trend it has been experiencing in recent times. Even so, his progress is moderate, as he has only increased by 0.08%, reaching 2.989 million users.

Another of the social networks owned by the company is Instagram, specifically data relating to the Reels function, which doubles the number of shares of these videos, increasing social participation on the platforms.

Part of this success with the Reels format has to do with the investment the company has made in its discovery engine’s recommendations and ranking system in “apps.” The time users spend on Reels increased by 24%.

Zuckerberg also noted that they’re gaining share in the short-form video space, competing with other major social networks like TikTok.

The year of efficiency

The beginning of the so-called year of efficiency is marked by personnel cuts made by Meta. In mid-March, the company announced a new batch of 10,000 layoffs, just months after making the largest cut in its history in November 2022.

For this he had to pay $4.3 billion in the first three months of this year, an 18% increase due to the money they had to invest in layoffs or, as the report puts it, “employee-related costs and restructuring expenses.”

The Reality Labs division continues to be very loss making. Its revenues fell 51% due to meager results from the Quest 2 headset. Operating losses hit $4 billion, up $1 billion from those in the same quarter of 2022.

Maintaining the investment in AI and Metaverse cost Meta this year-to-date first quarter $3,992 million, up from $2,960 million in 2022.

And while no one sees a way out of this gaping pit, Mark Zuckerberg has insisted that the company’s future will remain the Metaverse and artificial intelligence.