It seems AI is the top focus in the world of Meta as the company just rolled out its latest earnings report with a solid rise in users and revenue in Q2 of this year.
For starters, Meta says its family group of apps featured a daily active user count that rose to 3.27 billion, a more than 7% rise YoY. As a whole, it added 30 million more people across different apps during this period. However, it is unclear where these users have been most active recently.
Meta is known for reporting only its Family of Apps' performance, which includes Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Therefore, detailed trends are unavailable without a specific breakdown.
What we can confirm is that WhatsApp saw a massive surge across America, with users increasing more than in any other region.
Thanks to Meta’s evolving use of AI recommendations, usage on its Facebook and Instagram apps is also at a new high. The company notes a rise in video clips from various profiles appearing on feeds, even if users didn’t request them.
This change can be annoying for some, as many are speaking out against seeing random changes. On the other hand, many users spend more time on each app after viewing enticing videos, depending on their interests.
You might not be a fan of this, but it’s here to stay, the company notes. Meanwhile, the Twitter counterpart app, Threads, is also gaining traction among users.
As far as revenue is concerned, the company managed to bring in $39 billion for Q2, a massive 22% rise from last year. This is a great sign for Meta, as rising revenue comes from its biggest markets like the EU and the US, and other parts of the world continue to show growth with greater signups.
The only negative aspect of WhatsApp’s growth is the potential reduction in advertising opportunities, but Meta is compensating by earning more on different platforms.
Meta also mentioned that the total ad impressions across its apps rose by 10% YoY, while the average cost per ad rose by 10%.
Higher ad volume and costs reflect great demand. Meta is clearly in great shape for now and hopes to continue investing in AI and VR, areas where it is currently investing billions.
In detail, Meta lost a staggering $4.5 billion in its Reality Labs VR during this period. It plans to continue investing in both VR and AI, which resulted in a bigger loss than the previous year, where it spent $17 billion in the same domain.
Clearly, Meta is going big in AI, but its metaverse vision might be costing more than expected. While the company's VR headsets are performing well in sales, they have yet to become a 'must-have' for users.
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