Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) has unveiled its financial results for the first quarter of 2024 and it is nothing short of remarkable. The tech giant has witnessed robust growth across its suite of apps and continues to forge ahead in shaping the metaverse. Meta global revenue in Q1 2024 grew an impressive 27.3% YoY to $36.5 billion. Its family of apps accounted for 98.8% of this total revenue. However, on a quarterly basis, the company recorded a 9.1% decline in its global revenue during the first quarter.
Talking about profitability, Meta generated a whopping $12.4 billion in net profit, with an astonishing 116.7% YoY increase during the first quarter of 2024. However, it is worth noting that this net income declined 11.8% QoQ from over $14 billion net profit generated in Q4 2023, with a mind-blogging 201% increase.
In the last three months ended March 31, 2024, Meta added 2,012 employees to its workforce, taking the total count to 69,329.
Meta Advertising Revenue Growth
Advertising has consistently been the primary revenue driver for Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
Meta advertising revenue increased an impressive 26.8% YoY in Q1 2024 to $35.6 billion, worldwide. Even though this ad revenue declined 7.9% QoQ, the figure is still higher than all the first three quarters of 2023. It’s important to note that outperforming fourth-quarter performance can be particularly challenging for many companies in the advertising sector due to increased holiday season engagement on social media and entertainment apps, which boosts ad clicks for shopping purposes.
Meta’s Reality Labs revenue also increased a strong 29.8% YoY in Q1 2024, amounting to $440 million. However, it’s a massive 58.9% QoQ decline.
Reality Labs (RL) encompasses virtual, augmented, and mixed reality-related consumer hardware, software, and content.
Despite the revenue growth, Meta reported a substantial operating loss of $3.8 billion from the Reality Labs segment in Q1 2024. It’s worth noting that this operating loss slightly improved compared to the figures reported in Q1 2023 and Q4 2023. As Meta continues to invest in Reality Labs, losses associated with this segment persist, reflecting ongoing expenditure in developing and advancing virtual and augmented reality technologies.
“The new version of Meta AI with Llama 3 is another step towards building the world’s leading AI,” said Mark Zuckerberg.
Other Key Metrics
- The number of family daily active people (DAP) on Meta Platforms reached 3.24 billion in Q1 2024, an increase of 7.3% YoY and 1.6% QoQ.
- Meta generated an average revenue per person (ARPP) of $11.20 in Q1 2024, up 18.3% YoY. However, the company reported a nearly 9.2% QoQ decline from Q4 2023, when the platform achieved its highest-ever ARPP of $12.33.
- Meta’s ad impressions delivered across its Family of Apps increased 20% YoY worldwide, with specific growth rates of 16% YoY in the US and Canada, 12% YoY in Europe, 28% YoY in APAC, and 17% YoY in the rest of the world.
- Despite a notable 28% YoY surge in ad impressions and 24.5% YoY growth in overall ad revenue in the APAC region during Q1 2024, the average price per ad declined 3% YoY for the region. This indicates that advertisers faced more competition in the APAC region to reach their target audience, resulting in a decrease in the cost per ad.
NOTE: A family daily active person (DAP) is defined as a registered and logged-in user of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or WhatsApp who visits at least one of these Family products through a mobile device application or using a web/mobile browser on a given day.
Meta’s decision to discontinue reporting the number of Facebook‘s daily and monthly active users starting from Q1 2024 suggests a potential stagnation in user growth. As of Q4 2023, Facebook had 2.11 billion daily active users (DAUs) and 3.07 billion monthly active users (MAUs), worldwide.
In summary, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, performed exceptionally well in Q1 2024, with revenue increasing double-digits in all segments. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s dream project, Metaverse, and other AI-related experiments have been costing Meta billions, but the future looks promising and innovative for the social media giant.
