Meta, Facebook’s parent company, experienced a 3% increase in the first quarter of 2023 sales, beating Wall Street estimates and reversing three quarters of decline. This growth was due to a rise in user activity, with monthly active users on Meta’s apps increasing by 5% to over 3.8 billion and Facebook’s daily active users increasing by 4% to over 2 billion. However, profits decreased by almost a quarter to $5.7 billion, and the cost per advertisement, an essential metric for Meta’s digital ad business, fell by 17%. Meta has been reorganizing to recover from competition, the pandemic’s impact on ad income, and the creation of the metaverse, leading to a reduction of 11,000 jobs in November and a further 10,000 in March. Despite slightly lowering its full-year expense expectations, Meta cannot afford to remain stagnant in this environment.

Like other tech companies, Meta has switched its focus to artificial intelligence (AI) to drive growth. Zuckerberg claims that Meta’s AI work is generating positive results across its apps and business, including the development of AI chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger and visual creation tools for Facebook, Instagram, and ads. Although the year of efficiency has begun well, the process of reorganization and change is still in progress, and doubts remain, including potential regulatory changes and shifts in the advertising landscape.