Mark Zuckerberg envisions Threads as Meta’s next billion-person app

It is that time of year when companies unveil their third-quarter reports, shedding light on the market's trends and recent developments. Spotify recently disclosed its report, revealing an uptick in users and revenue despite a price increase earlier this year. Now, Meta is sharing insights into its performance.

Meta reported revenue exceeding $34 billion for the quarter, indicating a 23% increase from 2022. During discussions with analysts (via Engadget), Mark Zuckerberg emphasized Meta's recent focus on "efficiency," resulting in the company reducing its workforce by over 20,000 in the past year. Zuckerberg sees this approach as effective, especially in navigating a "very volatile world."

Turning to Meta's platforms and user base, Facebook maintains its lead in monthly active users with 3.05 billion, an increase from last year. The broader Meta family, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, collectively boasts a user base exceeding 3.9 billion monthly users.

Meta's concerted effort to promote Threads seems to be yielding positive results. Threads has just under 100 million monthly active users, and Zuckerberg envisions a "good chance" for the app to reach 1 billion users in the next couple of years.

Mark Zuckerberg shared his thoughts during the third-quarter earnings call, expressing a longstanding belief in the need for a billion-person public conversation app that leans towards positivity. He sees a good chance of achieving this vision if they persist in the current direction for a few more years.

Zuckerberg also shared Meta's increased focus on generative AI. “We're going to continue deprioritizing a number of non-AI projects across the company to shift people towards working on AI instead," Zuckerberg stated.

Yet, the investments in AI won't be cutting into the budget earmarked for the metaverse. Reality Labs, the Meta division in charge of AR and VR spending, faced significant setbacks. Revenue dropped to $210 million, and losses soared to $3.7 billion for the quarter, surpassing $11 billion since the beginning of 2023.