By Katie Paul and Yuvraj Malik
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Meta Platforms beat expectations for third-quarter revenue and profit on Wednesday, as advertisers banking on resilient consumer spending flocked to its digital platforms ahead of the holiday shopping season.
The Facebook and Instagram owner also trimmed its expense forecast for the year, while warning of additional spending and regulatory pressures ahead for 2024.
It forecast total 2023 expenses at between $87 billion and $89 billion, down from its earlier forecast range of $88 billion to $91 billion.
The social media company also said it expected 2024 total expenses in the range of $94 billion to $99 billion, higher than estimates, according to LSEG data.
It declined to give new information about 2024 expenditures, citing the same higher infrastructure investments, hiring plans and expected losses on its metaverse-oriented Reality Labs unit as in the previous quarter.
“The anticipated global surge in digital ad spending, poised to hit $667.6 billion next year, combined with Meta’s effective execution and cost control, puts the company on strong footing,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jeremy Goldman.
Shares of Meta rose 4% in extended trading.
Meta has been climbing back from a bruising 2022, buoyed by the hype around emerging artificial-intelligence technology, a recovery in digital advertising and an aggressive austerity drive in which it shed around 21,000 employees since last autumn.
The company’s shares have risen nearly 150% so far this year.
Revenue rose 23% to $34.15 billion for the quarter ended September. Analysts were expecting revenue of $33.56 billion, according to LSEG data.
The company also handily beat profit expectations.
Meta’s daily active people (DAP) grew by 7%. The company uses the metric to track unique users who used any one of its apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp in a day. DAP grew 7% in the preceding June quarter.
Facebook’s daily active users grew by 5%, while ad impressions across Meta’s apps grew 31%.
(Reporting by Katie Paul in New York and Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru Editing by Anil D’Silva, Sayantani Ghosh and Matthew Lewis)
