Facebook parent Meta posts first revenue decline in history

NEW YORK

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta posted its first revenue decline in history yesterday, dragged by a drop in ad spending as the economy falters and as competition from rival TikTok intensifies.

The results also largely followed a broader decline in the digital advertising market that is dinging rivals such as Alphabet and Snap. Google’s parent company reported its slowest quarterly growth in two years on July 26.

Meta also faces some unique challenges, including the looming departure of its chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, the chief architect of the company’s massive advertising business.

In addition to TikTok, the decline in ad spending among the downturn and Apple’s privacy changes “questions about Meta’s leadership”, including Sandberg’s exit and negative sentiment about the company as a whole also contributed to the decline, said Raj Shah, a managing partner at digital consultancy Publicis Sapient.

Meta earned profits of $6.69 billion, or $2.46 per share, in the April-June period. That’s down 36 percenr from $10.39 billion, or $3.61 per share, in the same period a year ago.

Revenue was $28.82 billion, down 1% from $29.08 billion a year earlier.
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“The year-over-year drop in quarterly revenue signifies just how quickly Meta’s business has deteriorated,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Debra Aho Williamson in an email.

She added that the good news , if it could be called that is that Meta’s competitors are also experiencing slowdowns.