Meta, parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, beats expectations with a third quarter net profit of $15.69 billion, up 35% year-on-year.
The summer turnover of the world's second largest online advertising company also exceeded market forecasts, reaching $40.59 billion, up 19% in "a good quarter boosted by advances in AI," according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, quoted in a statement published on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Meta once again revised upwards its capital investment forecasts. For 2024 alone, it is predicting a range of $38-40 billion - compared with $37-40 billion previously. A large part of this amount is to be spent on artificial intelligence (AI).
In the first quarter, this had caused concern among investors, despite a doubling of its profits. In the spring, the group's results were reassuring thanks to a further surge in profits, showing that the good health of its core business could support such investments.
In its press release, the group states that it plans to continue to increase its investments in 2025.
Meta makes extensive use of artificial intelligence to recommend content and target advertising to its billions of users thanks to its algorithms.
In a bid to take the lead in the AI-powered companion/assistant race, Meta is also banking on conversations with users of its applications, thanks to the new version of Meta AI, its assistant unveiled in April that answers users' questions, like ChatGPT.
Meta is also banking on the development of connected glasses, thanks in particular to a partnership with EssilorLuxottica, owner of the Ray-Ban brand.
According to analysts, Meta Ray-Ban connected glasses, which have been on the market for several years, should be on a good number of Christmas-gift lists this year, which bodes well for sales in the final quarter of the year.
The group expects sales of between $45 billion and $48 billion in the fourth quarter, according to its press release.
