Meta profits dive sharply in Q3

During Q3, Meta's net and operating income saw notable decreases year-over-year, while its revenue fared better but also came in at a decline.

The tech giant released its financial results for the three months ended September 30 yesterday. Here's what you need to know:

The numbers

• Revenue: $28 billion (down 4% year-on-year)
• Operating income: $5.6 billion (down 46%)
• Net income: $4.4 billion (down 52%)

The highlights

During the three-month period, daily active users grew by 3% year-on-year to 2 billion, whereas monthly users increased by 2%.

"Our community continues to grow and I'm pleased with the strong engagement we're seeing driven by progress on our discovery engine and products like Reels," said Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"While we face near-term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth."

Looking ahead the report forecasted that for Q4 it expects revenue to range between $30 billion and $32.5 billion.

Meta's chief financial officer David Wehner also provided some insight for the firm's performance in 2023.

Meta's AR/VR division Reality Labs also continued to weigh on results, posting an operating loss of $3.76 billion. Over the first nine months of Meta's fiscal year, it has been responsible for operating losses of $9.44 billion.

"Our growth in cost of revenue is expected to accelerate, driven by infrastructure-related expenses and, to a lesser extent, Reality Labs hardware costs driven by the launch of our next generation of our consumer Quest headset later next year," Wehner said.

Meta's stock price also took a hit following the earnings report, opening Thursday trading down 25% to $97.98

Additionally, the Meta Quest Pro was unveiled two weeks ago and is now available.