What you need to know
- Meta announced its Q4 2024 earnings.
- The company reported $48 billion in revenue, a 21% YoY increase driven primarily by family of apps ads revenue.
- Reality Labs reported its highest-ever revenue quarter with $1.08 billion in revenue offset by $4.9 billion in operating costs.
- Over 3.3 billion people used Meta apps and services in Q4 2024.
- Zuckerberg teased a new, more personalized AI it expects to launch this year and reach 1 billion users by 2026.
Meta reported another record-breaking quarter for Q4 2024, showing a 21% improvement in revenue over the same quarter in 2023. Meta earned $48 billion in revenue during Q4 2024 compared to $40 billion in Q4 2023. The company’s full-year earnings totaled $164 billion, a 22% increase over 2023’s $134 billion in overall revenue.
Ads brought in a record-breaking $46.7 billion, while Meta’s Reality Labs division also broke records with $1.08 billion in revenue. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that family of apps ad revenue was up for two primary reasons: 3.35 billion people used Meta products and services in 2024, delivering more ad impressions, while the average price per ad simultaneously increased 14% YoY.
Reality Labs’ record-breaking revenue was driven by Meta Quest 3S and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses sales, with Zuckerberg commenting that “the number of people using Quest and Horizon is steadily growing.” He further described 2025 as a “pivotal year for the metaverse” and teased the company launching more “visually stunning content” soon.
Zuckerberg also noted that 2025 is the year we’ll truly understand if AI glasses are a truly viable long-term product category for the company. Meta is said to be launching a pair of Oakley-branded smart glasses this year which should help further drive the product category. Reality Labs still operated at a loss this quarter, with operating expenses totaling nearly $5 billion.
Zuckerberg was positive about the company’s leadership in open-source AI despite yesterday’s DeepSeek AI launch from China. The CEO noted that its open-source model standardized many supply chain assets and is working toward delivering a further revenue-positive approach throughout the year with multiple expected Llama 4-related AI products.
Meta will be launching “a new, more personalized AI” this year the company expects to reach 1 billion users by the year’s end. Part of the new improvements will include additional memory length whereby Meta AI will be able to remember commands you’ve given it and be able to reference those, making it feel more like a personalized AI assistant rather than something you ask random questions to.
This new AI will be different in every region and dialect, helping to give it a more authentic feel rather than a generic AI question-and-answer bank. Zuckerberg also hyped the release of an “AI engineer” sometime in 2025 that will be able to operate with mid-level engineer capabilities. He said this AI engineer will be a “profound” release with potential market opportunities in 2026 and beyond.
The company teased 2025 as the year “we get back to the OG Facebook” but didn’t offer much clarity beyond trying to restore Facebook to its original purpose. Instagram, Reels, WhatsApp, and Threads all grew and are expected to continue to grow throughout 2025, especially given the uncertainty around TikTok.
