Meta Announces $14 Billion in Profits Exceeding Analyst Expectations

On Thursday, the company “Meta” announced that it had achieved profits amounting to $14 billion in the last three months of the previous year, surpassing analysts’ expectations.

The technology giant, who owns Facebook and Instagram, stated that revenues have increased to $40.1 billion this quarter, as approximately 3.1 billion people use the social network monthly.

In the profit report, the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, mentioned that the last quarter was positive, with our community and business continuing to grow.

In his earnings report, Zuckerberg emphasized that “we have made a lot of progress in our vision for developing artificial intelligence and metaverse.”

The stock of “Meta” rose by over 12 percent to reach $445 in after-hours trading.

Profit comes after 20 years of the establishment of Facebook and Zuckerberg’s appearance before Congress.

Mark Zuckerberg, along with top executives from Discord, TikTok, Snapchat, and X, testified on Wednesday in a judicial committee hearing of the Senate about “the crisis of child exploitation on the internet”.

During the heated inquiry, Zuckerberg was forced to stand up and apologize to the families of the victims who gathered in the committee hall, saying, “I apologize for everything you have gone through,” adding, “No one should experience what your families have endured.”

Zuckerberg explained to the committee members that “protecting the safety of young people online has been a challenge since the emergence of the internet. And as criminals develop their tactics, we must also develop our defenses.”

Technology giants are facing a wave of anger for not doing enough to combat the imminent risks that children face online, ranging from sexual exploitation to teenage suicides.

Facebook was founded 20 years ago as a simple social networking site, before it grew into a giant that continues to thrive despite the shift of younger users away from it.

The business model that relies on user personal data in order to provide engaging content and targeted advertisements resulted in Facebook facing legal suits, some of which led to hefty fines being imposed on the company.

Towards the end of 2021, Facebook changed the name of its parent company to “Meta” based on Mark Zuckerberg’s vision that virtual worlds, known as “Metaverse,” will be the primary computing platform of the future.

Reuters