Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, earned 23.2 billion dollars in 2020, some 21.3 billion euros, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday. It represents 41% less than the previous year.
Despite the bad figures, the technology shot up 19% after the market closed in a good reaction from investors, who had worse expectations, especially for the fourth quarter. The 40,000 share repurchase program announced with the accounts also helps.
Meta, which had previously warned of weak accumulated results, had a slight decrease in annual turnover, of 1%, to 116,609 million, but was weighed down by a significant increase in costs, of 23%, to 87,665 million. The company announced 11,000 layoffs in November and a charge of 4.610 million has been recorded in the year, related to these “restructuring efforts”, which also include the cancellation of office and project leases.
Zuckerberg dubbed this year the “year of efficiency” and said his priority is to make the company “stronger and leaner,” warning in his guidance for this year that it could “incur additional restructuring charges.”
Like other technology companies, it was affected by inflation, the weakness of the advertising market, the increase in competitors and the normalization of the demand for digital entertainment, which increased extraordinarily after the outbreak of the pandemic.
Between October and December, the company earned 4,652 million (55% less) and billed 32,165 million (4% less), which is the third consecutive quarter with a decline in revenue, largely dependent on advertising. “Impressions” (user views) were up across its suite of apps, but the average price per ad fell 22% in the last quarter and 16% for the year. The positive data is that the number of users is growing and exceeds 2,000 million active users, 4% more than last year.
After suffering a collapse on the stock market last year, with a capitalization cut of more than 60%, Meta announced a share repurchase plan of 40,000 million dollars, well above what was invested in that concept in 2022.
