Meta is the parent to some of the leading social media platforms of the day – Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And while it clocked strong growth during the days of the pandemic, the same growth slowed down to a trickle and even stopped last quarter – resulting in what was its first-ever decline in daily active users (DAUs) – and saw a steep fall of 26% in its stocks.
Things have changed for the better in the first quarter of this year however, as Meta’s earnings in Q1 2022 exceeded the estimates. The strong numbers saw the company’s shares rise by 18% on Wednesday.
Meta’s diluted earnings per share (EPS) exceeded estimates of $2.56 to come to $2.72, which is still lesser than the $3.30 it clocked in Q1 2021. Its total revenue clocked a year-over-year growth of 7% to reach $27.91 billion, beating expectations of $28.2 billion. This marks the first time that the growth of revenue was in single digits – The Wall Street Journal reported that this is its lowest growth in revenue ever since it went public in 2012.
Its operating margin fell from 43% in Q1 2021 to 31% in Q1 2022. Its net income saw a year-over-year drop of 21% as well to come to $7.5 billion.
“We made progress this quarter across a number of key company priorities and we remain confident in the long-term opportunities and growth that our product roadmap will unlock. More people use our services today than ever before, and I’m proud of how our products are serving people around the world,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta.
Coming to users, it (finally!) added more than what was expected. Its DAUs rose by 4% year-over-year to reach 1.96 billion (against estimates of 1.95 billion) while its MAUs (monthly active users) rose by 3% year-over-year to fall just short of the expected 2.97 billion – the MAUs came at 2.94 billion.
Additionally, family daily active people (DAP) was 2.87 billion on average for March, while family monthly active people (MAP) for the same period came at 3.64 billion on average. Its average revenue per user beat estimates of $9.50 to come to $9.54 billion.
Going forward, the company forecast total revenue in Q2 2022 to fall between $28-30 billion due to the “continuation of the trends impacting revenue growth in the first quarter, including softness in the back half of the first quarter that coincided with the war in Ukraine.” Regarding expenses, Meta expects it to fall between $87-92 billion, driven by its Family of Apps and Reality Labs.
The former contains Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and other services, while the latter includes consumer hardware, software, and content related to AR and VR. The Family of Apps segment clocked a year-over-year growth in revenue to generate $27.2 billion (making up the bulk of the revenue).
Reality Labs, which is working to build products for the metaverse (the apple of Meta and Zuckerberg’s eye), clocked $6.95 billion in revenue. As for income from operations, the Family of Apps segment pocketed $11.48 billion, while Reality Labs saw a loss of $2.96 billion.
