Meta reports Q1 results with increase in revenue, decline in net income

US social media giant Meta Platforms Inc on Wednesday reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, with a total quarterly revenue of US$28.6 billion, an increase of 3 percent year on year.

The company's quarterly net income decreased to US$5.7 billion, a decline of 24 percent. The diluted earnings per share for the quarter dropped to US$2.20 dollars from US$2.72 dollars in the same period of 2022, said Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and based in Menlo Park, California.

The monthly active users increased 2 percent year on year to US$2.99 billion as of March 31, while daily active users were US$2.04 billion on average for March, an increase of 4 percent.

Its cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were US$37.44 billion as of March 31, according to the company.

According to Meta, in 2022, the company initiated several measures to pursue greater efficiency and to realign its business and strategic priorities. As of March 31, 2023, the company substantially completed the 2022 employee layoffs while continuing to assess facilities consolidation and data center restructuring initiatives.

In March 2023, the company announced three rounds of planned layoffs to further reduce its company size by approximately 10,000 employees across the Family of Apps (FoA) and Reality Labs (RL) segments.

In connection with these layoffs, Meta expects to incur total pre-tax severance and related personnel costs of approximately US$1 billion.

"We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow," said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. "Our AI work is driving good results across our apps and business."

Meta expects total revenue of the second quarter of 2023 to be in the range of US$29.5-32 billion, and the 2023 total expenses to be in the range of US$86-90 billion.