San Jose, CALIFORNIA (dpa-AFX) - Shares in Facebook and Instagram parent
company Meta Platforms fell by around 12% at times in US after-hours
trading on Wednesday after the tech giant released its outlook for
the current quarter.

Meta predicted a turnover of between $36.5 billion and $39 billion,
the tech giant said in the outlook, released together with its first
quarter results. Analysts had expected an average of $38.4 billion.

The company is also preparing for higher costs this year while
focussing more on artificial intelligence.

Meta is now forecasting total 2024 expenses to be in the range of $96
billion to $99 billion. The previous forecast was $94 billion to $99
billion.

First quarter results meanwhile exceeded expectations.

Meta's advertising business continued to run at full speed in the
quarter. Revenue rose by 27% year-on-year to $36.4 billion. Net
income more than doubled from $5.7 billion in 2023 to around $12.4
billion.

An average of 3.24 billion users accessed at least one of the Group's
apps, which also include WhatsApp, every day in March, a 7% increase
year-over-year.

The business with the digital world Metaverse and virtual reality
continues to generate heavy losses. The Reality Labs division posted
operating losses of $3.85 billion. In the same quarter of the
previous year, it had posted an operating loss of just under $4
billion.


Copyright dpa