Well, the first two Q4 2022 reports are in, and… no one’s particularly surprised by the results.
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Sort of a pyrrhic victory
Meta’s combined platform profits fell a whopping 55% during the final quarter of 2022, though the company exceeded expectations in other areas:
- Quarterly revenue beat expectations, reaching $32.17B vs. the $31.53B expected.
- Active users on the platform went up 4%, hitting two billion.
- Ad impressions went up 23% year over year, while the price per ad went down by 22%.
Snap is spinning its wheels
The platform added 12M new users during last year’s final quarter, but reported only a slight revenue increase compared to last year.
Unfortunately, Snap’s revenue per user is stagnating, which makes its slight revenue bump obsolete.
Right now, the company hopes that Snapchat+ subscriptions keep growing. It has two million paying subscribers currently.
But apparently CEO Evan Spiegel’s earnings call was “reassuring.” Snap is planning to rebuild its ad infrastructure by including data cleanrooms, developing a pixel for e-commerce, and more.
Why we care
Both platforms reported user growth, so clearly social media apps aren’t “dying.” But the advertising architecture might need a little refreshment… just so you know.
Of course, with revenue drops being a combination of many factors, it’s too early to predict what’s in store for 2023.
Meanwhile, certain platforms are already living in 2024…