And to back up that claim the company has impressed analysts with plans to significantly cut costs and to issue a share buyback worth over $40bn. It’s also surprised by predicting a much stronger first quarter than expected.
Only a few weeks ago – with a set of poor fourth quarter results - those same analysts were raising doubts over Meta’s business model. The company’s last set of results were bleak affected by the costs associated with its focus on the Metaverse and its use of artificial intelligence to improve the performance of its Instagram and Facebook platforms – both of which have struggled post Covid as users have switched to newer platforms and consequently digital advertising has been weaker than expected.
Zuckerberg said that the company is now entering a new phase and he described the focus on efficiency as part of the natural evolution of the company, calling it a "phase change" for an organisation that claimed to "move fast” and was there to “break things."
The business is cutting costs by $5 billion, compared to what was previously forecast.
"We just grew so quickly for like the first 18 years," Zuckerberg said in a conference call. "It's very hard to really crank on efficiency while you're growing that quickly. I just think we're in a different environment now."
Meta cut more than 11,000 jobs last year, matched by tens of thousands of layoffs across the entire tech industry.
According to analysts while Meta is still confronted by a long list of issues, there are signs the business is doing better.
Investments in AI-surfaced content and Reels, a Tik-Tok competitor, are seen as starting to pay off and its investment in AI to increase automation for advertisers and target ads, is now starting to generate a higher return on ad spend.
Zuckerberg also said that generative AI would be the company's other big theme for this year, alongside efficiency.
The doom and gloom of just a few months ago seems to have been somewhat over done!
