Meta is projecting worse-than-expected sales in the current quarter, risking doubt that it can grow its digital advertising business quickly enough to support significant planned investments in artificial intelligence and other futuristic products.
The company expects first-quarter sales of $39.5 billion (€38 billion) to $41.8 billion, it said on Wednesday. The midpoint missed the $41.7 billion average analyst estimate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Meta employs around 2000 people in the Republic.
Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has been using artificial intelligence technology to transform how Meta’s business works, from the way advertising is targeted to the order of content that appears in social networks, squeezing more value out of the social media business and its 3.35 billion daily users.
That’s all meant to fund money-losing futuristic initiatives like virtual and augmented reality, as well as an expensive buildout of AI infrastructure.
The social networking behemoth also reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales of $48.4 billion, beating the $47 billion that Wall Street expected on average.
Advertising from Meta’s social networks, like Instagram and Facebook, continue to drive the vast majority of sales. – Bloomberg
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