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The company claims Threads is nearly at the 100m monthly user milestone, after its userbase plummeted less than a month after the app launched.
Meta has reported a highly profitable quarter, as the company continues to focus on developing fields such as AI.
The company’s revenue for the quarter ended 30 September was more than $34.1bn, a 23pc increase compared to the same period last year. Net income rose by 164pc, reaching $11.58bn for the quarter.
The result is a big contrast to Meta’s 2022 results, which saw its net profits plummet by more than half in the third quarter. By that stage, Reality Labs – which handles Meta’s virtual reality operations and metaverse ambitions – reported losses of roughly $3.7bn.
After a period of decline in 2022, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 2023 would be the “year of efficiency” as Meta focused on becoming “a stronger and more nimble organisation”. Part of the increased efficiencies included rounds of staff layoffs to build a “leaner, more technical company”.
“We had a good quarter for our community and business,” Zuckerberg said about the latest earnings. “I’m proud of the work our teams have done to advance AI and mixed reality with the launch of Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and our AI studio.”
But Reality Labs continues to bleed cash for Meta, as the division reported losses of $3.74bn in the latest quarter. Meta said it expects these operating losses to “increase meaningfully year-over-year” due to ongoing product developments in augmented reality and virtual reality.
Based on previous quarterly reports shared by CNBC, it appears that Reality Labs has reported a total loss of more than $37bn since the fourth quarter of 2020.
Threads is still going
Meanwhile, Meta reported growth in users across its family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. Daily active users number on average 3.14bn for September, while monthly active users number 3.96bn. Meta said this was an increase of 7pc in both cases.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg said in an earnings call that Threads has just under 100m monthly active users, representing a turnaround for the fledgling app. The Instagram-linked app launched earlier this year to take on X – formerly known as Twitter – and had a rapid rise in popularity.
But this rapid rise was followed by a plummet in users, as analytics firms claimed the app’s daily active users dropped by more than 80pc less than one month after launch.
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, thanked the Threads community and said more updates are planned to improve the app.
“We have lots more to do and need to be careful not to be too confident,” Mosseri said. “I’m hoping we can land support for Europe, early Fediverse progress, better Instagram integrations and trends in the next few months.
“It’ll be telling to see if these build even more momentum.”
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