The company’s shares gained more than 20% in late trading on fourth-quarter revenue that beat expectations. Zuckerberg, who has spent the past year promising a faraway future in a digital world called the metaverse, on Wednesday was more focused on immediate problems, such as sending users the most relevant videos at the right time, and finally making significant revenue from messaging products. He called 2023 the “year of efficiency”.
Zuckerberg said the company is using AI to improve the way it recommends content – a strategy for making the platform more attractive to users and advertisers alike. Meta is still suffering from a slump in demand for digital ads, which make up the vast majority of its sales, especially from clients in finance and technology. But the company also pointed to some industries, including health and travel, where businesses are spending more.
Snap, the parent of rival social-media app Snapchat, gave a less upbeat outlook on Tuesday, sending its shares down 10%. Snap said it expected sales to decline in the current period, with CEO Evan Spiegel remarking that the ad slump appears to be bottoming out. “Advertising demand hasn’t really improved, but it hasn’t gotten significantly worse either,” Spiegel said on a conference call.
Those cuts came during a quarter that was otherwise an improvement for the company. Facebook, Meta’s flagship social network, now has more than 2 billion daily users, up more than 70 million from a year ago.
Zuckerberg’s so yesterday