Strong Q1 earnings for Meta, but the road is still rocky

Facebook parent Meta reported first-quarter revenue of $28.10 billion, beating expectations of $27.66 billion and up 3% year-over-year.

Despite this, Meta’s net income company-wide was down 24% year-over-year, from $7.47 billion to $5.71 billion. So, the worry is not over.

While its advertising impressions were up 26% year-over-year, ad prices were down 17%.

Investors wiped $80 billion off the company’s market value in October after a poor earnings report.

Still rocky
The road has been rocky for Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, in its attempts to pivot away from social media to the metaverse, its virtual reality program.

It is now shifting focus to artificial intelligence, following the massive success of the Microsoft-owned ChatGPT. In a report, Meta said it anticipates capital expenditures to be in the range of $30 billion to $33 billion as it seeks to further build out AI capacity in its platforms.

Meta continued mass layoffs this month, set to impact more than 20,000 workers.