Meta’s advertising revenue has dropped again, causing its share price to plummet, as it faces stiffer competition from the likes of TikTok.
In the three months running up to the end of September, Meta pulled in almost $42 billion of advertising revenue. That might sound impressive, but it was down more than $2 billion from the preceding quarter and $9 billion from Q4 in 2021.
In APAC, Meta’s ad revenue declined by almost $300 million compared to the previous quarter.
Facebook’s daily active users increased marginally from 1.968 billion to 1.984 billion. In APAC, the monthly active users grew slightly from 836 million to 845 million. Despite that increase in users, the average revenue per Facebook user shrank from $15.12 to $14.49. In APAC, it shrank from $6.99 to $6.81.
“Our community continues to grow and I’m pleased with the strong engagement we’re seeing driven by progress on our discovery engine and products like Reels,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO.
“While we face near-term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth. We’re approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritization and efficiency that will help us navigate the current environment and emerge an even stronger company.”
When it comes to the metaverse, despite warnings from investors, Meta seems committed to pouring money into the unproven and seemingly unpopular venture.
“We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year. Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run,” wrote Meta in a statement.
The ironically named Reality Labs division, which houses the metaverse and virtual reality development teams, saw lost more than $14 billion in the nine months ending in September.
As a result of the disappointing earnings, Meta’s shares dropped 14% and are now trading at the lowest level since July 2016 — four months before the election of Donald Trump.
