Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has announced a robust start to 2025, reporting a substantial 16 per cent year-over-year surge in revenue for the first quarter, reaching $42.31 billion.
Meta made this known in its first quarter (Q1) 2025 report released on Thursday.
It said that on a constant currency basis, the revenue growth would have been even higher at 19 per cent, underscoring the underlying strength of the business.
“Q1 2025 has been marked by significant growth in user engagement and financial performance.
“Our family daily active people (family of products) reached an average of 3.43 billion in March 2025, demonstrating a solid 6 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
“Also, advertising revenue saw positive trends, with ad impressions delivered across Meta’s suite of apps increasing by 5 per cent year-over-year, and the average price per ad climbing by an impressive 10 per cent during the same period,” the Meta report said.
Despite the strong revenue growth, the organisation said it managed its costs and expenses effectively, with total costs and expenses amounting to $24.76 billion, representing a 9 per cent increase year-over-year.
The company continued its investments in future growth, with capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, totaling $13.69 billion in Q1 2025.
Meta also actively returned capital to its shareholders through share repurchases of its Class A common stock amounting to $13.40 billion.
It revealed that as of March 31, 2025, Meta held a strong financial position with $70.23 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities.
The report showed that the company generated a healthy $24.03 billion in cash flow from operating activities and $10.33 billion in free cash flow during the first quarter.
Meta’s workforce stood at 76,834 employees as of March 31, 2025, reflecting an 11 per cent increase year-over-year as the company continued to invest in talent to support its expanding operations and strategic initiatives.
Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2025, Meta anticipated total revenue to be in the range of $42.5 billion to $45.5 billion.
The company says it expects a modest one per cent tailwind from foreign currency exchange rates based on current rates.
Commenting on the second half, the Chief Financial Officer of Meta, Susan Li, said for the full year 2025, Meta has revised its total expense outlook downwards to a range of $113 billion to $118 billion, compared to the previous guidance of $114 billion to $119 billion.
She said that the company had increased its full year 2025 capital expenditure forecast to a range of $64 billion to $72 billion, up from the prior $60 billion to $65 billion.
“The adjustment primarily reflects additional investments in data centres to support Meta’s growing Artificial Intelligence efforts, as well as an anticipated increase in the cost of infrastructure hardware,” Li noted.
Meta reassured that the majority of its capital expenditures in 2025 would remain directed towards its core business, even as it projected its full year 2025 tax rate to be between 12 per cent and 15 per cent.
Furthermore, Meta highlighted its ongoing navigation of an evolving regulatory landscape, particularly in the EU and the U.S., which could pose significant challenges to its business and financial results.
A recent decision by the European Commission (EC) had deemed Meta’s subscription for no ads model non-compliant with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Based on feedback from the EC, Meta anticipated the need to make modifications to this model, which it warned could negatively impact the user experience for European users.
The organisation added that it significantly affect its European business and revenue as early as the third quarter of 2025.
While Meta intended to appeal the EC’s decision, the company acknowledged that required changes to its model may be implemented before or during the appeal process.
Commenting, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, said: “We have had a strong start to an important year. Our community continues to grow and our business is performing very well.
“We are making good progress on AI glasses and Meta AI, which now has almost one billion monthly actives,” Zuckerberg said.
