Facebook parent company Meta’s shares have jumped by 18 per cent, despite posting its smallest rise in revenue since going public in 2012.
The exciting is because active Facebook users are growing again, after a disastrous December quarter which saw daily users decline for the first time in the company’s history.
This caused a 44 per cent crash, which wiped $400 billion off the company.
Daily active users have now hit 1.96 billion a day, up 4 per cent year-on-year. Any user growth is big news for Facebook.
Total revenue rose just 7 per cent during the first quarter, to A$39.2 billion.
Ad impressions delivered across all apps increased by 15 per cent year-over-year during the March quarter, although the average price per ad dropped by 8 per cent.
“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,” said Mark Zuckerberg.
“More people use our services today than ever before, and I’m proud of how our products are serving people around the world.”
Meta expects June quarter revenue to be in the range of A$39-42 billion.
“This outlook reflects a 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,” explained Meta CFO David Wehner.
“Our guidance assumes foreign currency will be approximately a 3 per cent headwind to year-over-year growth in the second quarter, based on current exchange rates.”
The company has also lowered its outlook for total expenses for the financial year to sit between A$122-129 billion, reduced from A$126-133 billion.
“We expect 2022 expense growth to be driven primarily by the Family of Apps segment, followed by Reality Labs,” Wehner said.
