Meta is staying true to its "Year of Efficiency" and has once again exceeded Wall Street expectations based on results announced during its earnings report on Wednesday.
The Facebook parent company reported earning $34.15 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2023 (a 23% yearly increase), as well as spending $20.40 billion in the same period (7% lower YoY).
Family daily active and monthly active users have also jumped 5% and 3% in this period.
Meta's Massive Layoffs Pay Off
The company's recent success can be attributed to the "substantially completed" layoffs it had announced earlier this year to cut costs.
True enough, aside from revenue growth, the tech giant's total costs and expenses dropped to $20.40 billion, with an annual decrease of 7%.
The number of Meta employees significantly dropped at the same time (24% YoY) to land at 66,185.
"Beginning in 2022, we initiated several measures to pursue greater efficiency and to realign our business and strategic priorities. As of September 30, 2023, we have substantially completed planned employee layoffs while continuing to assess facilities consolidation and data center restructuring initiatives," the company wrote in a statement.
In the report, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thanked the teams behind Meta's most recent Quest 3 headset, its new RayBan Meta Smart Glasses, and the AI Studio.
Meta's 'Year of Efficiency' Cut Thousands of Workers So Far
Following a gruesome ad revenue slump last November, Meta laid off 11,000 (13%) of its workers to cut costs and atone for its losses.
However, this was only the beginning of the company's downward trajectory.
In February, Zuckerberg announced in an earnings call that 2023 would be the tech giant's Year of Efficiency, with a special focus on flattening the management hierarchy by cutting even more workers and multiplying its streams of revenue.
A month later, the tech giant laid off an additional 10,000 employees from its workforce.
While hard for its employees, these decisions ultimately contributed to the company's consistent growth trajectory as displayed by its performance in the last two quarters.
Edited by Nikola Djuric