Meta's latest earnings summary

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: Total revenue for the first quarter was $36.5 billion, up 27% year over year.

• Profit: Net income of $12.4 billion and earnings per share of $4.71.

• Capital expenditure: Including major payments for leases, capital expenditure was $6.7 billion, mainly for investments in servers, data centers, and network infrastructure.

• Free cash flow: Free cash flow was $12.5 billion.

Business dynamics and market trends

• User growth: Approximately 3.2 billion people use at least one Meta platform app every day.

• Ad Revenue: Ad revenue was US$35.6 billion, up 27% year over year.

• Other revenue from home apps: Business messaging revenue from the WhatsApp business platform drove an 85% increase in other revenue for home apps.

Invest and innovate

• AI and metaverse: Meta continues to focus on investing in AI and metaverse technology, with particular emphasis on the progress of Meta AI, an artificial intelligence assistant that can be used on various applications and devices.

• Advertising and content recommendation systems: By further developing advanced recommendation systems, Meta aims to increase user engagement and advertising efficiency on the platform.

Vision and Strategy

• Financial Forecast: Total revenue for the second quarter is expected to be between $36.5 billion and $39 billion.

• Long-term investments: Meta plans to significantly increase investment in infrastructure over the next few years to support its AI strategy.

• Regulatory environment: Meta continues to focus on the increasingly active regulatory environment, including legal and regulatory headwinds that could have a significant impact on business in the EU and US.

The conference call highlighted Meta's continued investment in AI technology and the metaverse, and showcased the company's strong drive in advertising and user engagement.

Meta's financial report this time surpassed Wall Street expectations in terms of both revenue and net profit. The likely reason Meta plummeted 18% after the market was because Zuckerberg said he would continue to focus on the metaverse. Q2 Revenue guidance is not as good as expected.