Meta Platforms, Inc. META shares soared 20% on Friday after the company reported forecast-beating fourth-quarter results and guided strongly. The company also announced its maiden dividend. Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday made an interesting observation about Meta’s flagship app “Facebook.”
What Happened: A user on X, formerly Twitter, shared graphics from a Pew Research Center study that showed Facebook as the second-most used social media platform in the U.S. among adults after Alphabet, Inc.’s GOOGL GOOG YouTube. The user also noted, as per the graphics, that Facebook’s user base was holding steady.
“Sometimes I think I must live in an alternate reality. I don’t know a single person who still uses Facebook,” the user said.
Musk agreed with the comment and said, “Yeah, I don't know anyone who uses Facebook.”
See Also: How To Buy Meta (Formerly Facebook) Stock
Why It’s Important: Meta’s fourth-quarter results showed that its Facebook daily active users, or DAUs, came in at 2.11 billion on average for December 2023, up 6% year-over-year. Monthly active users rose 3% year-over-year to 3.07 billion as of Dec. 31.
MAUs were 3.07 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023, an increase of 3% year-over-year.
Source: Meta
Much of the strength could be attributed to Reels, which is available across Facebook. In his prepared remarks on the earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “People reshare Reels 3.5 billion
times every day. Reels is now contributing to our net revenue across our apps. The biggest opportunity going forward is unifying our recommendations systems across Reels and other types of video.”
“In Q4, we saw continued community growth across the Family of Apps, as well as Facebook specifically.”
Zuckerberg also said the company will no longer report Facebook daily and monthly active users or Family monthly active people going forward. In the first quarter, the company will begin reporting year-over-year changes in ad impressions and the average price per ad at the regional level, while continuing to report Family daily active people.
Pew Research’s data showed that X platform owned by Musk ranked way down, with less than 20% of the respondents saying they use it.
Meta ended Friday’s session up 20.32% to $474.99, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo: Shutterstock
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
