Meta Bounces Back From Its 2022 Slump

After a disappointing 2022 compared to its revenue and net income in previous years, Meta seems to have steadied itself again in the current year. According to its most recent financial results, the tech company posted earnings of $25.1 billion and revenues of $94.8 billion between January and September 2023. The former figure already surpassed the full-year results of 2022. This means Meta is on track to come close to its record profits for 2021, as our chart shows.

With users increasingly utilizing e-commerce solutions and shifting their lives from the offline to the online world for the better parts of 2020 and 2021, Meta's ad business flourished. This resulted in almost $40 billion in earnings in 2021, an increase of 35 percent compared to the previous year, even though the company allegedly faced stronger headwinds in the second half of 2021, according to its corresponding annual report. Overall, net income between 2010 and 2022 showed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32 percent, while revenue had a CAGR of 37 percent.

Even though Meta's Family of Apps segment, which includes advertising on Facebook and Instagram as well as net fees for payment processing and other revenues connected to its apps, bounced back from decreased ad bookings in 2022, the company's Reality Labs segment continues to be the problem child. In the first nine months of 2023, this segment encompassing Meta's metaverse ambitions and VR and AR hardware and software accrued an operating loss of $11.5 billion against revenues of $825 million. Year over year, the latter figure shrunk by 42 percent.