[HN Gopher] Meta Earnings Results Q1 2022 [pdf]
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Meta Earnings Results Q1 2022 [pdf]
        
       Author : marc__1
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2022-04-27 21:00 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (s21.q4cdn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (s21.q4cdn.com)
        
       | paulpauper wrote:
       | FB is nuts. Bears focused on the slowing growth ,ignoring that
       | Facebook is making $40/billion profit in a year, which is just
       | astounding. That's 3x Walmart. You don't need much growth when
       | you have so much profit and market dominance. Buying Facebook
       | stock with a PE ratio of 13 , cheaper than any 'blue chip'
       | company, was a steal. $400-600 soon imho.
        
         | mrtksn wrote:
         | Isn't it that FB type of businesses are a bit like pro-athlete
         | like, in terms of viable career lifetime? I remember digg,
         | friendster, myspace, tumblr, bebo, msn messenger, Foursquare
         | etc...
         | 
         | Some gone, some still alive but all of them had what's FB's
         | primary moat: network effect.
         | 
         | It's a strong moat but once things start to move to the wrong
         | direction things can move fast... unlike with Walmart.
        
           | ethbr0 wrote:
           | They can, but I'd argue that none of those had the
           | pervasiveness of Facebook. Moreso due to timing & mobile
           | adoption, than any actual failing.
           | 
           | Facebook's moat is that it's the Yellow Pages of social.
           | 
           | It took the web to kill Yellow Pages, not a better phone
           | book. Which is probably why you see FB investing in acquiring
           | social-but-different competitors and researching paradigm
           | shifts.
        
             | pkdpic wrote:
             | I like that analogy but I'm realizing I have no real
             | understanding of if people saw the yellow pages as a
             | problematic monopoly in any way.
             | 
             | I'm sure no where near where facebook is with negative
             | perception but it seems like small businesses at least
             | could have viewed the yellow pages as problematic.
        
               | gnatman wrote:
               | They saw it as problematic enough that AT&T was broken up
               | in the 80s.
        
           | paulpauper wrote:
           | but that was a long time ago, before any social network had
           | the opportunity to establish the sort of dominance Facebook +
           | Instagram + WhatsApp have
        
           | oblio wrote:
           | Facebook makes more profit in 1 quarter than all of those
           | combined had revenue over their entire lifetimes.
           | 
           | Stalin used to say that quantity has a quality all its own.
           | 
           | The world has changed. Even if Facebook decays, it could
           | decay over literal decades, still being profitable. Yahoo is
           | still around ($1.3bn in revenue), IBM is still around, SUSE
           | is still around.
           | 
           | We only talk about the cool tip of the iceberg but
           | IT/tech/software is huge.
        
           | dntrkv wrote:
           | None of those every turned into real businesses, whereas
           | Facebook is one of the biggest money printers in the world.
           | 
           | Also, Facebook has been around for about 18 years now.
           | Myspace was a major player for like 4 years.
        
         | lvl102 wrote:
         | Compared to something like GOOGL? I rather own GOOGL and
         | diversified business lines. What FB needs to do is create 3-4
         | additional businesses preferably with its cloud/infrastructure.
        
         | Evan_Hellmuth wrote:
         | I agree with your assessment, and I'm a long term holder. I'd
         | love to hear your rebuttal to the following bear case:
         | 
         | - $10 billion to Reality Labs R&D in 2021 expected to increase
         | annually will eat into earnings
         | 
         | - Last year saw first ever decline in US Facebook user base,
         | expected to continue shrinking (albeit slowly)
         | 
         | - Apple's 2021 opt-in privacy change makes
         | FB/Insta/Messenger/WhatsApp ads less effective permanently for
         | the highest margin demographic (iPhone users)
         | 
         | - Hugely negative public sentiment* hurts adoption and makes
         | continued litigation headwinds likely
         | 
         | * to be clear, I think the negative sentiment is unfair towards
         | Meta. You use their service and in exchange they show you ads
         | based on your behavior. They've always been transparent about
         | that, there's nothing particularly secretive or nefarious going
         | on.
         | 
         | Ads power most of the free internet stuff we enjoy. YouTube,
         | Snap, Google search, Tiktok, they all do the same thing! But
         | people for whatever reason really seethe when it comes to Mark
         | Zuckerberg and FB.
         | 
         | In fact, it's pretty insane that TikTok isn't under more
         | scrutiny in the US from a national security perspective. At
         | least the other ad-powered entertainment apps aren't controlled
         | by a foreign adversary!
        
           | aczerepinski wrote:
           | I disagree about their being nothing nefarious. It took
           | people _years_ to realize the extent to which FB was tracking
           | your outside-of-facebook activity. I would even guess that
           | many still aren't aware. Shadow profiles, etc.
        
           | bun_at_work wrote:
           | It doesn't seem fair to compare Facebook to the other
           | companies you listed, with respect to negative public
           | sentiment. People rightly criticize FB for the numerous
           | scandals, data leaks, and lack of ethics, and as Zuckerberg
           | runs the company, he deserves that criticism.
           | 
           | It's one thing to buy the stock and be bullish, and another
           | to turn a blind eye to the horrors this company has created.
           | 
           | Youtube has it's problems, Google Search is going down the
           | drain, and a ton of other websites run off ad revenue, yes.
           | Those services are not responsible for organizing genocides,
           | providing political analytics companies access to
           | unauthorized data, or running unethical experiments on users
           | to test their impact on the users' mental health.
        
             | Evan_Hellmuth wrote:
             | Link a scandal or data leak since 2016 - I may need to
             | update my priors
        
               | ASalazarMX wrote:
               | - 2018, Cambridge Analytica
               | 
               | - 2020, Facebook announced it won't fact-check political
               | ads during the looming election.
               | 
               | - 2020, ex-Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang revealed
               | inner practices profiting from political disinformation
               | and manipulation.
               | 
               | - 2021, ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaks
               | documents revealing unethical business practices for
               | profit.
               | 
               | Given Facebook's rotten practices, seems it will give us
               | at least one major scandal per year, but without serious
               | consequences so don't sell your stocks.
        
             | noslenwerdna wrote:
             | Facebook isn't responsible for organizing genocides, etc
             | either. You might as well blame the telephone when
             | criminals use it in commissioning a crime.
        
               | ASalazarMX wrote:
               | It's very responsible for building hate echo chambers,
               | though.
        
           | redeux wrote:
           | > there's nothing particularly secretive or nefarious going
           | on.
           | 
           | Other than selling data and ads to foreign groups that use it
           | for electioneering / sowing domestic discord. Minor detail
           | though, I'm sure.
        
             | Evan_Hellmuth wrote:
             | They don't sell data, they let anyone who buys ads choose
             | who the ads go to based on anonymized data.
             | 
             | They also made it way harder to run political ads after
             | public sentiment changed in 2016.
             | 
             | You can go buy an ad from them right now. So can "foreign
             | groups." Neither of you will get access to anyone's data.
             | 
             | Same goes for YouTube, Twitter, Snap, etc.
             | 
             | If you're worried about "foreign groups" there's this
             | Chinese app called TikTok that knows everything about every
             | American under 30 that no one seems to be concerned about.
        
           | whimsicalism wrote:
           | > - $10 billion to Reality Labs R&D in 2021 expected to
           | increase annually will eat into earnings
           | 
           | Seems like that is a knob that can be changed at any time to
           | give more profit.
           | 
           | > - Last year saw first ever decline in US Facebook user
           | base, expected to continue shrinking (albeit slowly)
           | 
           | Including instagram? Regardless, this was right after the
           | pandemic, some people will switch from screens.
           | 
           | > - Apple's 2021 opt-in privacy change makes
           | FB/Insta/Messenger/WhatsApp ads less effective permanently
           | for the highest margin demographic (iPhone users)
           | 
           | This will be worked around - the impact isn't as large as
           | people make it out to be.
           | 
           | > - Hugely negative public sentiment* hurts adoption and
           | makes continued litigation headwinds likely
           | 
           | Doesn't seem to really be hurting IG adoption that much. The
           | real risk is litigation.
        
             | Evan_Hellmuth wrote:
             | Agreed on all counts! Except US FB user decline slowing
             | (not instagram, just FB).
             | 
             | Add in WhatsApp's under-monetization and some bullishness
             | on VR and you've got my investment thesis.
        
             | WYepQ4dNnG wrote:
             | > - Apple's 2021 opt-in privacy change makes
             | FB/Insta/Messenger/WhatsApp ads less effective permanently
             | for the highest margin demographic (iPhone users)
             | 
             | > This will be worked around - the impact isn't as large as
             | people make it out to be.
             | 
             | And you think Apple will stay put and do nothing? You can
             | expect that as soon as they find a work around, Apple is
             | gonna screw them again. They have no chances.
        
               | cheriot wrote:
               | If two apps can both identify a user then they will be
               | able to combine that data. Apple took away the one
               | identifier they controlled. What are they going to do
               | next?
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | Depends on the work around. I don't think it is possible
               | to get between app tracking data from some side channel,
               | Apple will definitely block that through legal if not
               | technical enforcement.
               | 
               | But they can use data from Android to infer user behavior
               | for Apple users.
               | 
               | Also, they can still use tracking data from their own
               | properties (IG, FB, Whatsapp).
        
               | WYepQ4dNnG wrote:
               | Less and less people are using FB .. perhaps IG and
               | Whatsapp yes, although you have to consider that privacy
               | regulations can only get more stringent over time.
               | 
               | They will go bankrupt, I don't think so. Will they be
               | able to grow at the rate of the last 10y? I don't think
               | so.
               | 
               | I think they peaked already.
        
         | msoad wrote:
         | People don't decide to go another store instead of Walmart in a
         | span of few months. But migrating from Instagram to TikTok can
         | happen very quickly.
        
           | paulpauper wrote:
           | _But migrating from Instagram to TikTok can happen very
           | quickly._
           | 
           | they simply use both. That is what I have observed.
        
             | msoad wrote:
             | There is a finite number of hours in a day -- unfortunately
        
               | andrewinardeer wrote:
               | Sleep is also a competitor to screen usage.
        
           | munk-a wrote:
           | Walmart has shifted a decent chunk of their business to the
           | internet and that business does suffer from quite a bit of
           | attrition when competitors manage to undercut their prices -
           | and Walmart established itself by stealing consumers in a
           | short time and forcing local businesses to shutter - then
           | consolidating their locations. It is an extremely impressive
           | business and they've been quite careful managing costs to
           | maintain their position, but they could easily lose their
           | dominant position quite quickly. Customer loyalty to Walmart
           | is entirely objective - they offer the best deals. As a
           | company their image is pretty terrible and very few people
           | would weep if they were overtaken.
           | 
           | Compare that to services that FB runs that have years of your
           | personal history carefully cataloged in it - that data can be
           | exported, but there aren't many services where it can be
           | richly imported.
           | 
           | Both companies may seem to be are in fragile positions
           | because of their size and public opinion but I wouldn't bet
           | either of them will shutter their doors anytime soon.
        
         | rubiquity wrote:
         | I was following along until your call for $400-$600 share
         | price. The problem with FB is that growth is slowing and will
         | eventually decline, and it's a growth stock. Unless the
         | Metaverse pans out it is going to be a while before the stock
         | is anywhere near its previous valuations, and that's putting
         | aside the current macro environment.
        
           | RivieraKid wrote:
           | > and it's a growth stock
           | 
           | How do you define a growth stock?
        
             | rubiquity wrote:
             | Stocks bought largely on expectations of future growth in
             | share price because the underlying business is promising.
             | In contrast to well run businesses that pay consistent
             | dividends to shareholders. Right now FB is neither a growth
             | stock nor a value stock, and that's bad because as revenue
             | declines so will share buybacks.
        
         | topper-123 wrote:
         | > $400-600 soon imho.
         | 
         | Revenue growth is stopping, no way they're going to that level
         | anytime soon. Also, if a recession is coming, as some say with
         | interest rates rising, ad expenditure will fall, affecting Meta
         | greatly.
         | 
         | OTOH, it has a moat from its network effect and its earnings
         | are insane in absolute terms, so could also pivot to become a
         | nice cash cow instead of a growth stock in the coming years.
        
         | political12345 wrote:
         | 2022.04.27
         | 
         | i'm saving the url of your comment and i will add a reminder in
         | 3 months to comment on this article.
         | 
         | i fear you will lose your money and the stock will not be at
         | that level but lets wait and see.
        
         | x3sphere wrote:
         | I agree it is a cheap price for FB but the macro environment
         | matters too... if we are entering a recession tech stocks will
         | see more downside still.
        
       | rvz wrote:
       | Interesting. Like I said, I think it is quite too early to write
       | Meta off. [0] Even looked at that _' screaming buy signal'_ when
       | it got lower than at least around $200 to around $190. [1]
       | 
       | Seems like lots of gamblers got wiped out after this earnings
       | result thinking that Meta was finished.
       | 
       | In this case the tables have turned and it is not over yet.
       | 
       | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30185992
       | 
       | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30186098
        
         | jonas21 wrote:
         | It's only in the HN bubble that people think Meta is finished.
        
           | randomsearch wrote:
           | Definitely in that bubble.
           | 
           | Main product has tanked. So few people use it extensively
           | now.
           | 
           | Instagram has been absolutely destroyed by tik tok. As that
           | audience grows up, the impact of that colossal defeat will
           | hurt more and more.
           | 
           | Buying another success will be near impossible, and they've
           | not created anything significant since the original app. No
           | reason to expect them to successfully build something as
           | difficult as a VR platform.
           | 
           | They've had years to fix the above. They haven't. Whilst that
           | doesn't matter for their current earnings, the future looks
           | very bleak, especially when the next recession hits and
           | advertising spend plummets.
           | 
           | I do wonder at what point Zuck will step away. I guess
           | sidewards to avoid spooking investors but he's smart, he
           | knows it's over.
        
             | oblio wrote:
             | Facebook is product with a global audience.
             | 
             | I doubt you have a good enough holistic overview.
        
       | gigatexal wrote:
       | Compared to Q12021 it's an improvement.
        
       | nabla9 wrote:
       | After hours P/E ratio is about right.
       | 
       | There is no reason to expect growth better than the Nasdaq
       | composite for the foreseeable future.
       | 
       | 1) Due to ownership structure and personalities, the path to new
       | ideas through leadership is closed. Zuckerberg is not going to
       | change or leave if Meta disappoints in the future.
       | 
       | 2) Meta can't by market share anymore thanks to regulators in all
       | major markets being finally awake, led by EU. The benefit of
       | using size as leverage is dwindling.
       | 
       | 3) Meta has never created major new innovation/product in-house
       | after Facebook. Metaverse is extremely unlikely to succeed
       | against competition. Discount fruitless R&D from profits.
       | 
       | 4) Meta continues to make money due to network effect, economies
       | of size. Meta is like an oil company pumping until Facebook +
       | Instagram well runs dry.
        
         | Evan_Hellmuth wrote:
         | Have you used a Quest 2?
        
           | nabla9 wrote:
           | Quest 2 is hardware, not market share.
           | 
           | Nothing in Meta's VR research is something that competitors
           | can't do. It's just basic incremental improvement you get by
           | throwing money into it.
        
             | bagels wrote:
             | 10b/year of improvements. Who else is doing this?
        
             | dntrkv wrote:
             | Meta owns over 50% of the VR headset market (over 60% of
             | the headsets used on SteamVR). With the amount of money
             | they are pumping into the space, combined with how invested
             | Zuck is personally, there is no doubt that they will
             | dominate this market. They are investing huge sums of money
             | just to get developers to build for their platform. If you
             | are long on VR, you should be long on Meta.
        
         | abeppu wrote:
         | > 2) Meta can't by market share anymore thanks to regulators in
         | all major markets being finally awake > 3) Meta has never
         | created major new innovation/product in-house after Facebook.
         | 
         | I guess, previously they bought some growing/upcoming
         | competitors. Can they satisfy regulators and buy up new
         | innovative companies with complementary rather than competing
         | offerings?
        
           | nabla9 wrote:
           | Platform antitrust regulators investigate both horizontal and
           | vertical acquisitions.
           | 
           | Complementary companies integrated into data-driven economies
           | of scale are still targets for regulators.
        
       | gzer0 wrote:
       | Earnings breakdown and why FB stock is up 17% after hours:
       | * Earnings per share: $2.72 vs $2.56 expected       * Revenue:
       | $27.91 billion vs $28.2 billion expected       * Daily Active
       | Users (DAUs): 1.96 billion vs 1.95 billion expected       *
       | Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 2.94 billion vs 2.97 billion
       | expected       * Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $9.54 vs. $9.50
       | expected
       | 
       | As of market close today, FB shares had lost almost half their
       | value in 2022.
        
       | k4ch0w wrote:
       | I don't see any mention of regulations coming down on Facebook
       | for the bear case. Same goes for Google. US law will regulate
       | them after following EU's. I think it's very likely once we get
       | more tech literate politicians in place
        
         | Evan_Hellmuth wrote:
         | What needs to be regulated?
        
           | munk-a wrote:
           | I think it's pretty reasonable to argue that they're
           | effectively monopolies in certain market segments and also
           | that their businesses are causing extreme societal
           | externalities that wouldn't exist if they didn't exist.
        
           | k4ch0w wrote:
           | Data collection, anti-trust and privacy policies. Right now
           | it is the wild west and consumers have no idea what is being
           | collected and how they are being profiled for ads.
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA
        
       | kerng wrote:
       | Seems like a long slow death for Facebook... the day after
       | tomorrow people will sell again.
        
         | munk-a wrote:
         | You're more than welcome to short it, but I don't think I'm
         | willing to take that risk.
         | 
         | FB isn't delivering great stats when it comes to the stock
         | market, but their profit margins remain pretty insane.
        
       | hmate9 wrote:
       | Stock is up 18% after hours.
       | 
       | Revenues and earnings:
       | 
       | - Daily Active Users 1.96BN, beating Est. of 1.94BN, up 4% Y/Y
       | 
       | - Monthly Active Users 2.94BN, missing Est. 2.95BN, up 3% Y/Y
       | 
       | - EPS $2.72, beating estimate $2.56
       | 
       | - Revenue $27.91 billion, beating estimate $28.24 billion
       | (Bloomberg Consensus)
       | 
       | - Advertising rev. $27.00 billion, missing estimate $27.48
       | billion
       | 
       | - Family of Apps revenue $27.21 billion, missing estimate $27.52
       | billion
       | 
       | - Reality Labs revenue $695 million, beating estimate $677.1
       | million
       | 
       | - Other revenue $215 million, beating estimate $189.3 million
       | 
       | A red flag here: yes, revenue grew 7% YY, but that was the
       | slowest pace of growth since the company went public in 2012.
       | Meanwhile, US revenue barely grew in Q1 at $12.671BN, up from
       | $12.405 BN.
        
         | ArtWomb wrote:
         | >>> Reality Labs revenue $695 million, beating estimate $677.1
         | million
         | 
         | On $3B loss. Insane R&D spend for CV ;)
        
         | zmmmmm wrote:
         | > Revenue $27.91 billion, beating estimate $28.24 billion
         | 
         | Is that a mistake? How does getting less than the estimate
         | constitute beating it?
        
         | guillermin wrote:
         | For me, that Reality Labs is the division beating estimates
         | drives home that Meta's bet on XR is going to pay. Ad revenue
         | might be down because of changes in Apple and Google mobile
         | policies, but they are going to control the platform of the
         | future and set their own rules.
        
           | jjfoooo5 wrote:
           | I'm having a hard time tracking down what kind of growth that
           | revenue represents.
        
           | vosper wrote:
           | I bought a Quest 2 out of curiosity, and am amazed by it.
           | Zuckerberg apparently says they're still 5-10 years away from
           | where they want to be with the technology, so I'm guessing
           | what's coming down the pipeline is going to be pretty
           | impressive.
           | 
           | I think people are really underestimating how much impact
           | these technologies are going to have. People thought the
           | first iPhone was only good for fart apps. I think this will
           | be a similar story.
           | 
           | I just hope someone can compete with FB.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | bredren wrote:
             | I also got a Quest 2 and am amazed by it.
             | 
             | I loathe Facebook, and use their products only when
             | absolutely necessary.
             | 
             | But after reading a comment on HN about value the Quest 2
             | delivers for exercise, I decided to give it a go. I had and
             | used the Oculus DK1 but had done zero VR since.
             | 
             | > I think people are really underestimating how much impact
             | these technologies are going to have.
             | 
             | Unquestionably. People are totally underestimating VR/AR.
             | 
             | > I just hope someone can compete with FB.
             | 
             | I think FB will be competing with Snap, Samsung/Microsoft
             | and others for the Android market.
             | 
             | If you use the Oculus in a room with Siri enabled (via
             | homepod / smarthome stuff like fans / lights) it becomes
             | obvious the experience must stretch beyond the headset.
             | 
             | Facebook has neither the privacy track record nor smarthome
             | footprint needed to support this. Though Oculus will have
             | existed first, and FB may get an improved headset to market
             | out in the meantime, Apple will create the market
             | expectations for VR/AR
        
             | dumbfounder wrote:
             | I bought one and I can't stand it. Too heavy and
             | uncomfortable. The UI is annoying and confusing. I tried to
             | find some games for my kids (ages 7-9) but they either
             | couldn't figure them out or they were boring. What's up
             | with that start area, why can't I explore it? It's
             | collecting dust for me. I see the potential but it seems a
             | ways off.
        
               | dntrkv wrote:
               | > Too heavy and uncomfortable
               | 
               | Upgrade the strap, it's a much better experience.
               | 
               | My nieces and nephews are all around that age, I usually
               | let them play Job Simulator. They love it.
        
               | zmmmmm wrote:
               | > I tried to find some games for my kids (ages 7-9)
               | 
               | they won't even recommend it as safe for kids that age
               | yet, so it isn't surprising you couldn't find any games
               | targeted to that age range.
               | 
               | You should be aware there are some potentially scary
               | things going on in any of the social apps [0]
               | 
               | [0] https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-
               | radio/2022/apr/25/a-barra...
        
               | dntrkv wrote:
               | Nobody should be letting their kids play any multi-player
               | games. Not only for their sake (people say some fucked up
               | shit on there), but for the sake of all the other adults
               | playing those games.
        
             | GordonS wrote:
             | Current generation VR just doesn't excite or interest me.
             | 
             | But I _am_ excited for what 's going to come, now that VR
             | is getting some serious investment.
             | 
             | My wishlist:                 - no motion sickness or
             | headaches (not sure if this is going to be possible for
             | 100% of people)
             | 
             | - lighter, less bulky, less ridiculous looking, more
             | comfortable headsets; the dream would be something like a
             | pair of regular glasses, or goggles - higher resolution
             | 
             | And, with time, I'd like to see hardware become less
             | expensive, giving it a chance to become more mainstream.
        
               | matt_s wrote:
               | All of those reasons are why VR will be a niche, as in
               | not mass market like smart phones, for a long while.
        
               | oblio wrote:
               | VR? Maybe. AR? Likely 5 years away.
        
               | Wowfunhappy wrote:
               | > - no motion sickness or headaches
               | 
               | We can do this right now on the Index. You need:
               | 
               | - A computer that can output 144 fps consistently without
               | drops.
               | 
               | - Well-positioned lighthouses.
               | 
               | - Software that does not move the player or world when
               | the player does not physically moves around their space.
               | (Except via blink teleportation.)
               | 
               | Unseen Diplomacy, The Lab, and Half Life Alyx, when
               | played with the right settings or hardware, shouldn't
               | make basically anyone motion sick.
               | 
               | Unfortunately, people don't like blink teleportation
               | because it usually sucks, and games like Unseen Diplomacy
               | have pretty large play-space requirements. But IMO,
               | there's room for more creativity in this space. Budget
               | Cuts, for example, makes blink teleportation really work.
        
               | Hamcha wrote:
               | Plenty of low end titles also have good comfort options
               | without requiring top tier GPUs to achieve stable
               | framerates, my personal picks are Rec Room for a social
               | experience and "Garden of the Sea" for a chill single
               | player experience. Both have snap-turn and teleportation
               | as first-class movement option.
               | 
               | I wanted to go deeper (esp. with VRChat) so I eventually
               | caved in to free movement. It was very motion sickness
               | inducing at first, but doing it bit by bit you get used
               | to it after a while.
               | 
               | Personal recommendation for any VR experience: I have a
               | bar stool in my VR space where I can lie on or just sit.
               | The difference from a chair is that it doesn't offset you
               | vertically when you lie/sit, which tends to mess with
               | games.
        
             | Tiktaalik wrote:
             | There was never any moment where the iPhone was a fart app
             | novelty. It was immediately and obviously wildly better and
             | more useful than every phone than came before it.
        
           | ren_engineer wrote:
           | it's going to take a lot of marketing to get people to accept
           | VR in large numbers, too much dystopian sci-fi that instantly
           | makes people not interested. When I look at those headsets I
           | instantly think some combination of The Matrix and Brave New
           | World.
           | 
           | But maybe Zuck knows about some forthcoming propaganda
           | campaign to focus on getting people to use VR to distract
           | from income inequality, putting the majority of the
           | population into the digital world seems like the best way to
           | distract from real world issues
        
             | dntrkv wrote:
             | The Quest 2 sales numbers are in the ballpark of the new
             | consoles.
        
             | zmmmmm wrote:
             | Well it's interesting having teenage kids.
             | 
             | Because while the adults are all busy pooh-poohing it, this
             | tech is rapidly penetrating in that market. Which is to
             | say, something like 80% of my kids friends have access to /
             | use VR routinely. And it's 100% Oculus/Meta.
        
             | krapp wrote:
             | I think it's more the cost and awkwardness of the headsets
             | and the lack of any "killer" apps that are holding VR back,
             | moreso than dystopian sci-fi.
        
           | ed_elliott_asc wrote:
           | I can't see how they will make comfortable and safe, 3ds
           | can't be used by children!
        
           | rvz wrote:
           | > For me, that Reality Labs is the division beating estimates
           | drives home that Meta's bet on XR is going to pay.
           | 
           | > they are going to control the platform of the future and
           | set their own rules.
           | 
           | This.
           | 
           | Lots of people are overlooking this part of Meta and they are
           | quite far ahead with XR.
        
             | political12345 wrote:
             | Old people
             | 
             | That
        
             | zmmmmm wrote:
             | It's interesting that we are all waiting for the other shoe
             | to drop in that Apple is forever "about to" release it's XR
             | devices. Yet so far it hasn't happened. Apple is famous for
             | waiting until quality hits a certain mark, but nonetheless,
             | it tells me that what Oculus/Meta has achieved is more
             | special than people think. This stuff is _hard_. It looks
             | simple on the surface but watch any of John Carmack 's
             | talks and see how much complexity there is underlying it
             | all.
             | 
             | I do think Meta is completely wasting its time with it's
             | current approach of trying to re-invent Facebook inside the
             | Metaverse. Hopefully they get past that sooner rather than
             | later. But I have no doubt this is going to be an
             | _extremely_ important platform in the future and other than
             | Apple if they ever show up, it 's very hard to see anybody
             | catching Meta.
        
           | IfOnlyYouKnew wrote:
           | It's beating the estimate by less than $20 million, or about
           | 7 %, at a level where it's a rounding error anyway.
           | 
           | Google says Apple AirPods are responsible for $23 billion in
           | revenue, or 23x Reality Labs. It's running laps around Meta,
           | in reality.
        
             | ceeplusplus wrote:
             | Headphones are a well established market with pretty much
             | no growth upside. Apple captures share from incumbents. RL
             | is building out an entirely new market.
        
           | paxys wrote:
           | That entire segment makes two orders of magnitude less
           | revenue than Meta's core business, so I'd still not consider
           | a marginal beating of expectations to be too informative.
        
         | mupuff1234 wrote:
         | Can one really trust any of the reported user numbers?
         | 
         | I imagine they can decide to dial down efforts to detect
         | bots/fake profiles and more or less hit the numbers they want.
        
           | randomsearch wrote:
           | Far bigger problem is that DAU and MAU are a vague metric and
           | don't reflect the amount of time on the site, click through
           | rates, advertiser interest etc.
           | 
           | For a crude yardstick during a growth phase, sure. For
           | measuring the long term health of a mature business, nope.
        
           | Evan_Hellmuth wrote:
           | Unlike search ads, businesses buying fb/insta ads care a lot
           | about attribution (at what rate does someone who saw the ad
           | buy something).
           | 
           | If ads aren't effective businesses will stop buying them.
           | 
           | Fake clicks will always result in a no-purchase, and
           | therefore would devalue FB's offering in the #1 metric ad
           | buyers care about.
           | 
           | Not to mention that would be fraudulent behavior and they'd
           | be opening themselves up to huge litigation risk.
        
             | mupuff1234 wrote:
             | I'm not necessarily talking about bots clicking ads, could
             | just be fake profiles for whatever reason: inflating the
             | number of likes of a page, writing reviews, phishing
             | attempts, propaganda etc
             | 
             | Let's say FB has 200 million bots. Do you think businesses
             | could tell that there's actually 1.7b users and not 1.9b?
        
             | a1371 wrote:
             | As someone who had bought ads there, I can tell you this is
             | not as true as you think. You pay for the ad and the
             | business picks up a bit, but the reported conversion
             | numbers at least for me never made sense. It's really about
             | making more money than you put in that you keep it going.
             | Now given the ethics around Facebook, I don't do it
             | anymore. I say it's all about CPC, I admit here it isn't.
        
       | hmate9 wrote:
       | $9.39 billion Class A common stock shares were repurchased. That
       | is 2% of Meta's market cap. And they still have more to
       | repurchase!
       | 
       | As of March 31, 2022, FB had $29.41 billion available and
       | authorized for repurchases.
        
       | potiuper wrote:
       | Ad Rev By Geo *Edited                  20Q4  21Q1  %      21Q4
       | 22Q1  %        2512  2434 -0.031  3220  2949 -0.084 Other
       | 4703  4735  0.007  6183  5661 -0.084 Asia        6822  6373
       | -0.066  8174  6364 -0.221 Europe       13150 11897 -0.095 15062
       | 12024 -0.202 US Can
       | 
       | war (.095-.066+.221-.202=0.048) > supply chain
       | (.007-.084+.202-.095=0.03)?
        
         | lyime wrote:
         | You have to compare the same periods in previous year for a
         | fair comparison.
        
       | posharma wrote:
       | Why is fb up 18% and msft only 4.8% even after beating
       | expectations? This is messed up.
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | it was way oversold, for one. and much cheaper.
        
         | pedrosorio wrote:
         | FB was down 13.2% in the last week (201.53 -> 174.95) for "no
         | reason", so that probably explains the difference.
        
         | zoover2020 wrote:
         | Are you on Blind by any chance
        
           | posharma wrote:
           | I don't use Blind.
        
         | rvz wrote:
         | When I see multiple questions from lots of people asking _'
         | why'_ X stock is performing better than the expectations or
         | other stocks, it also means that there was at least 90% of
         | people that were on the wrong side of the trade, with the
         | remaining 10% laughing all the way to the bank.
        
         | posharma wrote:
         | Why the downvotes? It's a genuine question.
        
       | mistrial9 wrote:
        
       | RyanShook wrote:
       | The big unknown with Meta is the Multiverse/VR plans Zuckerberg
       | has. How much of the company's reserve and free cash flow is he
       | willing to risk? I think the answer is most of it.
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | fb has so much profit and cash that this is not such a big
         | risk.
        
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