Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook and Instagram advertisement sales have fetched the parent company Meta with more than $39 billion in quarterly revenue. The revenue from digital advertising of both social media platforms is up by 22 per cent compared to the second quarter of last year.
Meta founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg said, "We had a strong quarter, and Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year."
High advertisement prices and more views on the commercials backed the increase in earnings. The average cost per ad increased by 10 per cent. "Meta's careful introduction of ads on Reels has led to a perfect storm of rising impressions and rising ad prices," said eMarketer principal analyst Max Willens.
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With positive results in quarter two, the company is hopeful for its revenue in the third quarter which is projected to be around $38.5-41 billion.
Meta is investing aggressively in its Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects. The social media giant is in cut-throat competition with Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI to gain dominance in the AI tools space. Meta is likely to infuse $40 billion in 2024 into developing AI products and will pour in more funds in 2025.
Willens added, "Any apprehensions investors may have had about Meta's spending on AI and the metaverse are likely to be allayed by this quarter's results."
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On the other end, the wave of layoffs has touched the tech industry, Meta is not behind in this race. It has witnessed a 1 per cent decrease in its workforce. It has decreased from 87,000 employees in 2022 to 70,799 in June 2024. However, Meta's chief financial officer Susan Li said the employee numbers would be "meaningfully higher" by the end of 2024 as compared to the last year.
