Shares of Facebook parent Meta rose on Wednesday as the internet behemoth posted a $5.7 billion profit in the first quarter of this year, above expectations despite a large wave of cost-cutting and layoffs.
According to an earnings report, the profit came on revenue of $28.6 billion and as the number of people using Facebook every month increased to just shy of three billion.
“We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO.
“We’re also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long-term vision.”
Zuckerberg, who has declared 2023 the “year of efficiency,” also stated that the artificial intelligence deployed at Meta is “driving good results” across the company.
In after-hours trading following the release of the earnings figures, Meta shares rose roughly 12% to $233.94.
The amount of adverts broadcast across the company’s “family of apps,” which includes Instagram, climbed by 26% year over year, but the average price per ad fell.
According to Meta, the IT titan’s personnel count was down to 77,114 at the end of March, with more layoffs planned.
This year, tech companies across the United States have been laying off employees as a reckoning across the sector that began last year continues into 2023.
Facebook has taken the most extreme approach to downsizing its employment among US big tech corporations, shedding about a quarter of its global workforce, or more than 20,000 people, in just a few months.
“The year of efficiency is off to a stronger-than-expected start for Meta,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
“In this economic environment — and after the disaster that was 2022 — three percent year-over-year revenue growth is an accomplishment,” she added.
Meta had a difficult 2022 due to a deteriorating economic situation, which prompted advertisers to cut back on marketing, and Apple’s data privacy rules, which limited ad personalisation.
Last year, according to Zuckerberg, was a “humbling wake-up call,” and it would be prudent to “prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.”
