Facebook’s parent firm, Meta reports a drop in revenue as TikTok looks to tap growth

By Conrad ONYANGO

Meta – the parent company of Facebook was hit with a double whammy in the last three months, with revenue falling for the first time ever.

The firm’s profit shrank for the third straight quarter, amid growing competition from TikTok and nervousness from advertisers.

“We seem to have entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on a conference call. “I’d say that the situation seems worse than it did a quarter ago.”

He said Meta would slim down spending and slow its pace of hiring to weather the storm.

Revenue slipped 1 percent from a year ago to US$28.8 billion in the three months ending in June, a bigger drop than Wall Street analysts were expecting.

The strengthening dollar was a factor in the revenue decline, Meta said, without which it would have reported a 3 percent increase.