Shares in Facebook parent Meta have plummeted by more than 20 per cent overnight, following a less-than-stellar fourth quarter financial report.
Meta posted earnings per share of US$3.67, compared to Wall Street estimates of US$3.84, with a drop in daily active users, monthly active users, and slowed growth forecasts.
Its fourth quarter profit of US$10.3 billion was far below expectations of US$10.9 billion, which marks its first decline in net income growth since Q2 of 2019.
Facebook’s monthly users in the fourth quarter sat at 2.91 billion, representing zero growth over the three-month period.
Meta also said revenue in the current quarter would sit between US$27-29 billion, which falls well short of Wall Street’s US$30.25 billion forecast.
Reality Labs, the AR and VR arm for which the company changed its entire name and focus, posted a US$3.3 billion results. Zuckerberg had previously flagged Reality Labs wouldn’t make money “any time in the near future.”
The company singled out Apple’s privacy changes for the iPhone as being a major issue for the company, while they noted “headwinds” due to increased competition.
“On the impressions side, we expect continued headwinds from both increased competition for people’s time and a shift of engagement within our apps towards video surfaces like Reels, which monetise at lower rates than Feed and Stories,” Meta said in a statement.
