Meta Platforms Inc has reported a 23% increase in its global revenue at $34.14 billion for the third quarter ending September 30, 2023.
In its Q3 earnings report, the social media giant revealed that its net income has risen to $11.8 billion, up by 164% from the same period last year.
"We had a good quarter for our community and business. I'm proud of the work our teams have done to advance AI and mixed reality with the launch of Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and our AI studio,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO.
Meta’s advertising revenue stood at $33.6 billion in the third quarter this year, up from $27.23 billion in Q3 last year. Marketing & Sales decreased 24% due primarily to lower marketing spending and headcount-related costs.
On a user geography basis, ad revenue growth was strongest in the Rest of the World and Europe at 36% and 35%, respectively, followed by Asia Pacific at 19% and North America at 17%.
The total expenses of the company came down by 7% from $22 billion last year’s Q3 to $20.3 billion in Q3 2023.
According to the company, Facebook daily active users (DAUs) were 2.09 billion on average for September 2023, an increase of 5% year-over-year while the monthly active users (MAUs) were 3.05 billion during the period, an increase of 3% year-over-year.
In the earnings call, Zuckerberg said that in terms of investment priorities, AI will be the biggest investment area in 2024 – both in engineering and computer resources.
“But I want to avoid allocating a lot of new headcounts, so we’re going to continue deprioritizing a number of non-AI projects across the company to shift people towards working on AI instead,” he said.
The Meta founder also said that the company’s hiring will be slower going forward, the actual rate next year may temporarily be faster.
“On the recruiting front, one dynamic that I want to flag is that we have a sizable hiring backlog right now since part of our layoffs earlier this year included teams swapping out certain skill sets for being able to hire others, and we’re still going to be hiring for those roles going into 2024.
“That means that even though we're planning to grow headcount at a much slower rate going forward, the actual rate next year may temporarily be faster as we work through this hiring backlog,” he said.
The cost of revenue increased 9% as higher infrastructure-related costs were partially offset by lower content costs, the company said.
Meta ended the quarter with over 66,100 employees, down 7% from the second quarter, it said.
