Meta has printed its first earnings report of 2025, exhibiting a rise in general customers, and a strengthening in its advert enterprise, solidifying its core, and enabling it to proceed betting on next-level experiments that can guarantee its ongoing relevance.
First off, on utilization. Meta added an extra 80 million customers throughout its Household of Apps in Q1 (quarter-over-quarter), taking it as much as 3.43 billion customers on common in March 2025.
It’s somewhat annoying that we don’t get the app breakdown that we used to, by way of what number of customers every app has. However in general development phrases, Meta continues so as to add an increasing number of customers, because it branches into new markets, and sees broader adoption of Fb, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
And now Threads as nicely.
Threads is as much as 320 million customers, and we could get an replace on this as a part of Meta’s earnings name, including one other string to Meta’s bow on this respect.
To place this in perspective, 3.43 billion represents round 40% of your entire international inhabitants. And whenever you think about youngsters beneath 13, who can’t use most of Meta’s apps, and areas the place its apps aren’t accessible (like China), that may be a staggeringly excessive stage of market attain for any single firm.
Which can be why Meta’s advert enterprise stays so robust, as a result of nobody affords the breadth of protection that Meta can.
On that entrance, Meta introduced in $42.31 billion for Q1, a rise of 16% year-over-year.
One other enormous consequence, although it is usually price noting that its Actuality Labs income, the division chargeable for its wearables, together with its Ray Ban good glasses, noticed a decline in income on Q1 final yr.
Meta’s Ray Bans are rising in recognition, with the addition of AI options serving to to propel them to a different stage. As such, I count on that this quantity will rise once more all year long, however it’s price noting that Meta’s nonetheless engaged on making actual cash from its wearables division.
Its growth of recent expertise can be costing quite a bit. Meta’s whole prices and bills for Q1 had been $24.76 billion, a rise of 9% year-over-year, whereas its capital expenditures (which incorporates the event of its rising AI infrastructure) reached $13.69 billion.
Meta’s set to spend large time on AI datacenters and connective parts, because it appears to guide the AI race, whereas it’s additionally constructing its VR metaverse on the identical time, in addition to AR glasses, and extra.
All of this can proceed to maintain Meta’s prices excessive, which is why it must continue to grow its advert enterprise, with a view to gas its next-level plans.
On that component, Meta additionally reviews that advert impressions had been up 5% year-over-year, whereas its common value per advert elevated by 10%.
It’s a stable construction for growth, with its core advert enterprise enabling ongoing funding, and proper now, it positively looks as if Meta’s heading in the right direction to go from power to power, whereas additionally remaining agile sufficient to regulate to no matter large tech shifts come its manner.
I imply, it form of confirmed that with AI. Meta’s been creating its personal AI parts for over a decade, however as quickly as OpenAI went public with ChatGPT, each different platform needed to scramble to catch up, and make sure that they’re personal AI initiatives remained related.
Meta was ready to do that higher than anybody else, and it’s now arguably in the very best place to capitalize on the alternatives of gen AI.
However that was a giant shift. Meta modified focus from the metaverse, and the following stage of digital connection, and re-aligned round AI, as type of a center step in its broader plan. It’s now embedded that as a key step, whereas nonetheless sustaining concentrate on its larger finish purpose, in VR engagement, and it’s wonderful to see simply how adaptable such an enormous firm can nonetheless be within the face of those shifts.
Which is one more reason why Meta stays a robust wager, and the almost definitely winner in the long term, on all fronts that it’s engaged on. It has a stronger underlying enterprise basis, bigger scale, and extra sources than nearly another firm.
And its advert enterprise continues to develop, increasing its worth on this entrance.
