Since President Trump's rates have increased global trade, many eyes have been on Silicon Valley and how the biggest technology companies – including Meta – are planning to endure the storm.
On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive of Meta, told investors that he had a plan.
In a quarter of a call, Mr. Zuckerberg said that his company, that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owns, would lean on five pillars he saw as his strengths. They include the use of artificial intelligence to improve the advertisements of the company and to increase the time that people spend on the platforms, earning more money with messages apps and the doubling of AI investments.
The plan is already working, he said, adding that he expected the constant strong revenue growth in Meta's advertising activities.
“This has been a good start to what I expect to stay an intense year,” said Mr. Zuckerberg. “Even with our important investments we do not have to succeed in all these areas to have a good return on the investment.
“But if we do that, I think we will feel very good about what is happening,” he added.
Mr. Zuckerberg's optimism contrasted with comments from managers at other companies in recent weeks, many of whom have given muted guidance or have spoken about the pallout they can see from Mr. Trump's rates. His comments bear weight as Meta is often considered a Bellwether for the technical industry, especially in online advertisements.
For the first quarter, Meta achieved the turnover of $ 42.3 billion, an increase of 16 percent compared to a year earlier and above Wall Street estimates of $ 41.3 billion, according to data collected by FactSet, a market analysis company. The profit was $ 16.6 billion, an increase of 35 percent of $ 12.4 billion a year earlier and surpasses of $ 13.6 billion.
Meta said it expected the turnover of $ 42.5 billion to $ 45.5 billion for the current quarter, with the high -end of that range over Wall Street expectations of $ 43.8 billion. The shares rose more than 5 percent on the trade after hours.
Meta's activities have been robust in recent years because the company in AI has invested to suggest different messages, videos and advertisements to users. Mr. Zuckerberg said that the investments have regularly kept people back to Meta's apps and clicks on more relevant advertisements.
But the company stands for new challenges in the Trump era. The rates can affect some of Meta's largest initiatives, including billions on infrastructure projects such as data centers, which use raw materials that have been hammered by the import load of Mr Trump.
Meta expects to spend even more on those infrastructure investments. On Wednesday it increased his prediction of capital expenditure for this year to $ 64 billion to $ 72 billion, an increase of $ 60 billion to $ 65 billion.
Meta has also confronted with questions about the most important source of income: selling digital advertisements to brands and retailers, both large and small. The more small companies are affected with rates, the less they can afford to spend on Facebook and Instagram advertisements.
Mr. Trump has set the highest rates at the import from China, and Chinese e-commerce powerhouses such as Shein and Temu are especially important for the activities of Meta. In 2023, Chinese companies accounted for 10 percent of Meta's turnover.
Wednesday's income showed no advertising -pullelback, as Mr Trump's rates were announced in April and the profit period ended in March.
But in the profit call, Susan Li, Chief Financial Officer of Meta, said that “some” Asian retailers had already reduced their advertisements for the platforms of the company pending the end of an American trade in the trade on Friday. The Maas in the law, the De Minimis exemption called, releases imported goods from less than $ 800 of rights and taxes.
Meta's financial guidance takes into account “uncertainty” in “how the macro environment will evolve over time,” said Mrs. Li, but they avoided Mr Trump and his economic plans directly.
Meta also undergoes an antitrust test in Washington about whether it illegally destroyed the competition in social networks by buying Instagram and WhatsApp when they were young startups. The outcome of the Multiweek test, the first major technical matter continued by the current Trump administration, could reform the American antitrust landscape and the ecosystem of Silicon Valley.
Last week, the European Union said that the Meta fined 200 million euros ($ 230 million) for breaking the Digital Market Act, a 2022 law intended to increase competition in the digital economy.
The company said on Wednesday that it would follow the 'active regulatory landscape', which could significantly influence its core activities.
