Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, more than doubled profits and booked record sales in the third quarter, but warned of continued macroeconomic uncertainty and lower advertising demand in the current quarter.
In what he has labelled a “year of efficiency”, Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has cut jobs and reduced costs in a bid to revive the company from a period of sluggish growth and investor concern over his costly bet on the metaverse, which has yet to bear fruit. Net income in the third quarter jumped 164 per cent to $11.6bn, well above the consensus forecast for $9.4bn.
Revenues also rose 23 per cent to $34.1bn compared with the same period last year, above analyst expectations of a rise to $33.4bn. It was also Meta’s highest quarterly sales figure since it went public in 2012.