Meta reports Q1 revenue up 27% YoY to $36.46B, net income up 117% YoY to $12.37B, and family daily active people up 7% YoY to 3.24B on average for March 2024

Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.

Meta Investor Relations 2024-04-25

Context & Ripple Effects

This quarter marks a sharp reversal from Meta's prior period of falling revenue and much lower profit, while its family daily-active audience continued to grow. The combination matters because revenue and earnings rose far faster than the reported user base.

The subsequent Q2 increase in revenue and net income extended the same near-term arc, making Q1 more than an isolated improvement in the company’s reported financial trajectory.

First-order effects

Meta enters the period with $36.46B in quarterly revenue and $12.37B in net income, materially improving its reported earnings base versus a year earlier.
Its family of apps reached an average 3.24B daily active people in March, giving Meta a larger audience alongside the financial rebound.

Second-order effects

Because revenue and profit grew substantially faster than daily active people, investors and competitors gain a clearer benchmark for monetization and operating leverage per active user rather than audience growth alone.
The result raises the strategic importance of sustaining revenue per active device across Meta’s family of apps; later quarterly results will test whether that gap can persist as user growth moderates.

Third-order effects

If financial growth continues to outpace audience growth, large consumer platforms may increasingly be judged on how effectively they monetize and operate against mature user bases, not simply on adding users.
The pattern points toward a platform market in which scale remains valuable but incremental economic output from existing users becomes the more consequential competitive measure.

The trend: Meta’s Q1 is one data point in the shift from user-acquisition-led platform growth toward monetization and profitability gains from already massive audiences.

Discussion

@mranthropology Richard Stroffolino on threads
Meta made $1590 in net income per second in q1
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
CFO Susan Li tells CNBC that soft China ecommerce sales (aka Temu) had a negative impact on June outlook. My take: We saw this coming. She adds the higher Capex spend reflects larger spend in core AI including GPUs and datacenters. My take: Bravo. Keep spending on building AI...
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
$META doing a good job of preparing investors for the unknowns. CFO Susan Li just said on the call EU regulation can have a “significant” negative impact on the business. My take: Regulation is a wild card, and the company wants investors to be ready for the worse. It's...
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
Zuckerberg ends the call with his vision of building Agentic AI. These go beyond generative AI that you prompt. They are agents that get things done for you. That could be research a topic, buy something, etc. This is also know as personalized AI, and I'm a big believer in...
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
interesting stat from Zuckerberg: “More than 50 percent of content people see on IG now is recommended by AI.” I think that means the suggested content from folks you dont follow, which is a huge amount after kicking this off roughly a year ago (i think)
@kelseyhightower Kelsey Hightower on x
META should have announced a robotaxi based on Llama 3.
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
Zuckerberg says his focus in 2024 is growing the Meta AI product and other AI products that will become “very large business” down the road. My take: One of those very large business could be Llama.
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
more good points. basically WS expectations were already sky high and even coming in at midpoint of guidance for Q2 revs freaked them out https://twitter.com/...
@supbagholder @supbagholder on x
Who the fuck sells Meta on those numbers? They guided miss by 1%. They beat everywhere else. Opex and Capex increased. But with a 20%+ top line growth rate, I'll allow Zuck to spend. Very good earnings. I'm happy. I'll buy more if it drops
@swiftstories Mike Swift on x
Zuckerberg says in @Meta Q1 earnings that launch of new #genAI #MetaAI “as another key milestone in showing that we have the talent data and ability to scale infrastructure to build the world's leading AI models and services.” #AI
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CEO: “Right now, about 30% of the posts on Facebook Feed are delivered by our AI recommendation system. That's up 2x over the last couple of years. And for the first time ever, more than 50% of the content that people see on Instagram is now AI recommended”
@eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x
2/ These additional metrics come at the expense of Facebook's geo-level ARPU and DAU metrics, which Meta had stated it would remove from earnings slides in its last earnings call.
@eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x
In a shift in reporting focus, Meta highlights Average Price per Ad Y/Y (%) and Ad Impressions Delivered Y/Y (%) *by geo* for the first time in its Q1 earnings slides. These metrics were important in tracking Meta's adaptation to ATT through engagement expansion + optimization. […
@tidefallcapital @tidefallcapital on x
I miss when big tech was capital light. $META [image]
@richlightshed @richlightshed on x
🚨 60% of time spent on Facebook and Instagram is watching video — pretty amazing when you think back 4-5 years. $META #reels and thats before a TikTok ban... [image]
@conorsen Conor Sen on x
Question I have post-NFLX and META is whether all the easy levers have been pulled.
@eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x
In a shift in reporting focus, Meta highlights Average Price per Ad Y/Y (%) and Ad Impressions Delivered Y/Y (%) for the first time in its Q1 '24 earnings report. I found these metrics important in tracking Meta's adaptation to ATT through engagement expansion + optimization. [im…
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
meta rakes in the ad dollars but the street is getting twitchy at the increased spending on A.I. infrastructure — ten percent stock drop in after hours https://www.nytimes.com/...
@alexheath Alex Heath on threads
Threads now has 150 million monthly users, @zuck says on Meta earnings call today. That's up from almost 100 million users in October. How bout them daily users tho? https://www.theverge.com/...
@wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on threads
“Is anyone still using this app??”
@alexheath Alex Heath on threads
PSA to AI startups
@marygillis.bsky.social Mary Gillis on bluesky
Almost every example he gives of how AI will make money for Meta involves finding new places to shove ads. — Meta's AI is as innovative as the formerly blank space on the back of grocery store receipts. [embedded post]
@vthallam Venkatesh Thallam on threads
Working at Meta is such a roller coaster, one moment you'd be checking lambo prices and the next quarter you'd be rationing your food 🥲
@kurtwag8 Kurt Wagner on threads
$META stock is now down 12%. It's not uncommon for an increase in spending to hurt the stock, but I'm a little surprised at the sharp decline only because I thought investing more into *AI* of all things would be considered more acceptable than other kinds of spending
@sal19 Sal Rodriguez on x
Zuckerberg to analysts just now: “We're in a place where we've shown that we can build leading models and be the leading AI company in the world.”
@ericjhonsa Eric Jhonsa on x
Zuck: “[We] should invest significantly more over the coming years to build even more advanced models and the largest scale AI services in the world. As we're scaling CapEx and energy expenses for AI, we'll continue focusing on operating the rest of our company efficiently. But..…
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
$META dropped an additional 5% (now down 17%) on Zuckerberg's opening comments that will be growing Capex and energy meaningfully before seeing the greater benefit of AI. He wants to get investors on the same page, they're entering a multi year investment cycle. My take, the st…
@lexnfx Alexei Oreskovic on x
And Zuck just said he expects AI to be a “multi year investment cycle”
@stockmarketnerd Brad Freeman on x
Zuck spooking investors with talks of a multi-year AI infrastructure investment ramp. CapEx guide surprised some. I'll be adding to what is my largest position if this falls much more. Countless examples of these investments cycles being prosperous. Don't bet against Zuck IMO.
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
I should have mentioned before, another factor to the stock being down (now 13%) is they guided 2024 full year total expenses up 1% because of legal higher infrastructure. It does not have numbers for Reality Labs.
@rihardjarc Rihard Jarc on x
@Kasbar_G I think it's more about revenue guidance, although the top range is higher than estimates and partly capex (but that was mostly expected, IMO). From what I see, nothing fundamentally major. I will share more after the call.
@lexnfx Alexei Oreskovic on x
In 5 months Meta has increased the amount of money it plans to spend on cap ex for AI this year by $5 billion. (October forecast $30 billion to $35 billion, now $35 billion to $40 billion)
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CEO: “Before we make much revenue from some of these new products, I think it's worth calling out that we've historically seen a lot of volatility in our stock during this phase of product playbook where we're investing & scaling new products but aren't yet monetizing them”…
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
zuckerberg on earnings call with investors basically telling wall street “yeah we are spending money like crazy but also weve done this a bunch before and it worked out so please chill”
@eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x
Meta $META down 10% following its earnings release on weak Q2 guidance. Revenue increased 27% Y/Y, ad impressions increased 20% Y/Y, average price per ad increased 6% Y/Y. [image]
@netcapgirl Sophie on x
zuck, my boy. what's happening. idk if you saw the response to the capex guide but long story short, it's not great. they're saying uh, uh, there's no cost discipline & the ROI from AI is unknown. have you seen the pic of you w the mustache? yeah i'm thinking that's our strategy …
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
The most important read from the $META capex guidance is related to $AAPL. Building AI infrastructure takes several years and tens of billions of dollars. When Apple reports their March quarter on May 2nd, it will likely mark the first time they outline expectations for their A…
@selfmademastery Kelly on x
Zuckerberg earned the right to spend a lil money, relax guys. $META
@mayhem4markets @mayhem4markets on x
That $META earnings call was an absolute disaster. Zuck tried to convince his investors that AI is the future, when there's no real clear path to how it makes profit. Then he tried to tie it into the metaverse. At that point I bet a lot of people got PTSD, because the selling …
@ericjhonsa Eric Jhonsa on x
$META ups its 2024 capex guide to $35B-$40B from $30B-$37B (compares with 2023 capex of $28.1B). Total expense guide slightly upped to $96B-$99B from $94B-$99B. [image]
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
$META down 12% for two reasons. 1. Midpoint of revenue guidance for June is 1.3% below the Street. 2. They are increasing the midpoint of Capex spend by 12%. My take: 1. The 1.3% revenue guide down for June is a rounding error under normal circumstances. The problem for META…
@rihardjarc Rihard Jarc on x
The market reacting emotionally to short-term rounding number “misses” for the next quarter and a company investing to increase their moat is something I, as a long-term investor, will never get tired of, as it gives me a chance to add to my highest conviction positions. $META
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
basically as this call went on the stock kept dropping. wall street extra twitchy today. Meta employees may not want to look at their fidelity accounts today
@edludlow Ed Ludlow on x
$META is now down >16% in after hours (a leg lower on Zuck commentary on the spending plan and where Meta will or wont be focused on spending).
@edludlow Ed Ludlow on x
$NVDA down >1% in after hours, following $META capex/expenses FY guide
@northmantrader Sven Henrich on x
$META beats: -10% $TSLA misses +10% [image]
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Meta employees in the news today. How it started vs. How it's going [image]
r/wallstreetbets r on reddit
Meta shares sink 11% on weak revenue guidance
Gameranx Ryan Parreno on x
Rumor: Apple Vision Pro Shipments Reduced Due To Low Demand (Is It Over For VR?)
@parismarx@mastodon.online Paris Marx on mastodon
Meta lost $3.85 billion on the metaverse in the first quarter of 2024 alone. You know, that thing we all laughed about a couple years ago and next to no one actually uses. — It's burned $45 billion on the metaverse since the end of 2020. — https://www.cnbc.com/... #tech #me…
@cap_zay @cap_zay on x
We metaversing again
@brandolightshed Brandon Ross on x
Zuck talking about Reality Labs and AI intertwining. But not talking about how RL going to benefit AI. Gives Meta real life input into AI models - not just text, images and video. $META
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
So generous. This is very likely just more aggressive surveillance advertising practices as it ingests as much data as humanly possible regardless of rights aka AI tech. But wow, Team Bosworth is up to $45 billion in losses? https://stocks.apple.com/... [image]
@ballmatthew Matthew Ball on x
Meta Reality Labs P&L (Q1'19-Q1'2024) Usual disclaimer: Costs includes R&D and other investments into products that have yet to even ship (e.g. optical AR devices, electromyography, games) or been scrapped (some watches, Portal), plus device subsidies, marketing, and some M&A [im…
@lamonicabuzz Paul R. La Monica on x
Always odd to me when a growth company plunges because it's spending heavily on capital expenditures. How do you think the company got to be a high growth stock in the first place? And how can it intend to stay one without spending? $META down 12%.
@ballmatthew Matthew Ball on x
FWIW, my internal estimate for life-to-date looks like this: • Revenue: $9B • Total Spend + Investment: $70B • Net: ($61B)
@qcapital2020 @qcapital2020 on x
Shareholders have PTSD from Zuck overspending on the Metaverse ambitions in 2021-2022 and running a huge loss with Reality Labs with no achievable timeframe for ROI....My guess is this investment cycle will be somewhat long perhaps 3-5yrs but the ROI will be a lot more quantifiab…
r/technology r on reddit
Meta's Reality Labs posts $3.85 billion loss in first quarter
r/Economics r on reddit
Meta's Reality Labs posts $3.85 billion loss in first quarter

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