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<\/a><\/p>\nNet income in the first quarter was $7.47 billion, or $2.72 a share. Analysts had estimated earnings of $2.56 per share. Sales in the current period will be $28 billion to $30 billion, Meta said Wednesday in a statement, compared with the $30.7 billion analysts had predicted on average.<\/p>\n
Again, the company pointed to the ongoing war in Ukraine as a factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis outlook reflects a continuation of the trends impacting revenue growth in the first quarter, including softness in the back half of the first quarter that coincided with the war in Ukraine,\u201d the company said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Meta said that in light of the revenue outlook, it is paring overall spending plans for the year, to $87 billion to $92 billion from a previous target of as much as $95 billion.<\/p>\n
On the call with analysts, Zuckerberg said Meta plans to launch its new virtual reality headset, code-named Project Cambria, later this year. The headset is meant to be used for work purposes as a replacement for a laptop, he added.<\/p>\n
The company shocked investors in February when it said daily users for its core Facebook service declined slightly in the fourth quarter for the first time ever, raising the possibility that the main social network had peaked in popularity. The stock tumbled 26% the next day, underscoring the concerns that people – especially teenagers and young adults – were defecting to newer platforms like TikTok, and that advertisers would follow.<\/p>\n
In October, Zuckerberg had said that Facebook would focus on attracting \u201cyoung people\u201d to the service as a way to combat the rise of TikTok and other competing products. That meant prioritizing Reels, a TikTok copycat video format on Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook. While usage of Reels is growing quickly, the company\u2019s advertisers haven\u2019t been as fast to switch to the new format.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said on the call that making significant money from Reels will be \u201ca multiyear journey\u201d similar to the company\u2019s efforts to make money from disappearing Stories.<\/p>\n
Reels already makes up more than 20% of the time that people spend on Instagram, Zuckerberg said. The company doesn\u2019t give metrics for total time spent on Instagram or on its other apps, which include WhatsApp and Messenger.<\/p>\n
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