Meta boasts stellar results, but its advertising business slows slightly

The “boom” led by AI is going well for Meta, whose latest quarterly results produced copious green shoots. In the period between July and September 2024, the turnover of the parent company of Facebook and Instagram rose 19% year-on-year.slightly exceeding the revenue of $40.3 billion previously anticipated by Wall Street. This growth fell somewhat behind the increase achieved by Meta in the previous quarter, when the company’s revenue increased by 22%.

During the third quarter of the year, advertising swallowed 96% of Meta’s global turnovera figure that is slightly below the data from the previous quarter, when advertising devoured 97% of the $36.5 billion that the company entered its coffers between April and June 2024.

In the last quarter, Meta obtained, on the other hand, net income of 15.69 billion dollars35% more than a year ago. This figure is equivalent to $6.03 per share, which represents a quarterly record for Meta.

If we stop at the users of the different Meta platforms, In September 2024, the American multinational’s apps had an average of 3.29 billion active daily users, 5% more than a year ago.

Looking ahead to the current quarter, Meta expects a turnover of 48,000 million dollars which is in line with analysts’ projections.

Meta is betting heavily on AI

In the fierce battle for AI currently being waged in Silicon Valley, Meta is giving strength to its investment in this technologyespecially to strengthen the targeting of its ads and its capabilities from the point of view of content recommendation.

This same month, Meta, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg, presented new generative AI advertising tools with a focus on video creation.. Meta is also integrating its AI chatbot into all of its products, including WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.

Meta also recently signed a multi-year agreement with Reuters so that its AI chatbot could access information from the famous news agency in real time.

Meta AIthe American company’s chatbot, It already has more than 500 million active monthly users.

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram would also be developing a search engine powered by AI to reduce its dependence on Google and Microsoft Bingwho are currently supporting Meta AI in answering questions about current events.

«Over time, the user queries channeled through Meta AI will significantly expand and this will make further information available to us. monetization options«, assures Susan Li, CFO of Meta.

For his part, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, also emphasizes the enormous opportunity that AI constitutes for small businesses and all companies in general and the company’s intention is to help companies get the most out of this technology to improve their customer service and strengthen sales.