A surprise fall in the active user base of Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, ETR:FB2A, SWX:FB) took the gloss off an otherwise solid set of quarterly numbers, wiping around 3.8% or $56 billion from the value of the business.
Q3h revenue climbed 19% year-over-year to $40.6 billion and earnings per share reached $6.03, both exceeding Wall Street expectations.
However, daily user growth came in short of forecasts, with 3.29 billion active users compared to an anticipated 3.31 billion.
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, emphasised the company's focus on artificial intelligence development, highlighting Meta AI’s expanding user base and potential, with 500 million monthly users accessing the AI assistant via the Instagram and Facebook search bars.
Meta’s investments in AI include the release of its Llama 3.1 model and the AI video tool, Movie Gen.
The company has introduced new hardware like the Quest 3 headset and previewed the Orion AR headset. Amid legal challenges over user safety, Meta recently made all Instagram accounts for users under 18 private by default.
The stock closed at $591.80, valuing the business at $1.5 trillion.