Meta四季度净利润下降55%，元宇宙部门去年亏137亿美元

　　拥有Facebook、Instagram和WhatsApp的Meta发布了截至12月31日的2022财年第四季度及全年财报。财报显示，Meta第四季度总营收为321.65亿美元，较上年同期的336.71亿美元下降4%；净利润为46.52亿美元，较上年同期的102.85亿美元大降55%。

Meta, with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, released the fourth quarter of the 2022 fiscal year and the full year as at 31 December. The financial statements showed that Meta’s total income for the fourth quarter was $32,165 million, down 4 per cent from $33,671 million in the same period in the previous year; net profit was $4,652 million, down 55 per cent from $10,285 million in the same period in the previous year.

　　即便Meta四季度净利润大降，但依旧略高于预期，此前市场普遍预期Meta第四季度净利润下降幅度为60 亿美元。同时，该公司将2023年的支出预期下调了50亿美元，并宣布追加400亿美元用于股票回购。

Even though Meta’s four-quarter net profit fell sharply, it was still slightly higher than expected, following the market’s general expectation that Meta’s fourth-quarter net profit would fall by $6 billion. At the same time, the company projected a downward adjustment of $5 billion in spending in 2023, and announced an additional $40 billion for stock buybacks.

　　Meta股价在盘后交易中疯狂飙升，涨超20%。彭博社估计，如果这一收益持续存在，它的市值将增加约760亿美元。截至目前，Meta股价为153.120美元。

The market value of Meta’s share price was estimated by Bloomberg to increase by approximately $76 billion if the return persisted. At present, Meta’s share price is $153.120.

　　预计今年将恢复增长

　　2022年，在经济放缓的背景下，Meta受到多方挑战。一方面来自TikTok的竞争日渐加剧，另一方面苹果隐私政策变化后，公司的广告活动受到了挑战。Meta在11月首次宣布裁员，裁员数量为1.1万人，占员工总数的13%，以期削减成本。尽管如此，其利润在本季度受到了重挫。公司第四季度净收入下降55%至47亿美元。

In 2022, in the context of the economic slowdown, Meta faced multiple challenges. Competition from TikTok, on the one hand, was increasing, while corporate advertising was challenged following changes in Apple’s privacy policy.

　　在与投资者的电话会议开始时，扎克伯格说了他的2023年管理主题——“效率年”。他表示，Meta现在专注于减少一些中层管理人员，削减绩效不佳的项目。

At the start of his teleconference with investors, Zuckerberg described his 2023 management theme — — &ldquao; efficiency year & & rdquao; he said that Meta was now focusing on reducing some middle-level managers and cutting underperforming projects.

　　“我们可以做更多的事情来提高我们的生产力、速度和成本结构。”扎克伯格说。“2022年是充满挑战的一年。但我认为，只要我们继续提高效率，我们最终在主要优先事项上取得了良好进展，并为今年取得更好的成绩做好了准备。”

& & ldquo; we can do more to improve our productivity, speed and cost structure. & & & & & & & Zuckerquo; Zuckerberg says. & & & & & & & 2022 is a challenging year. But I think as long as we continue to improve efficiency, we finally make good progress on key priorities and are ready for better results this year. & & rdquo;

　　第四季度，Meta多款应用的月活跃用户增长了4%，累计达到37.4亿，Facebook应用的用户数量增长了2%，达到29.6亿。

In the fourth quarter, the number of monthly active users of Meta applications increased by 4 per cent to a cumulative 3.74 billion and the number of users of Facebook applications increased by 2 per cent to 2.96 billion.

　　Meta预计2023年第一季度的收入将达到260亿美元至285亿美元，与273亿美元的平均预期相符。分析师预测，Meta将在本期之后恢复增长。

Meta is expected to earn between $26 billion and $28.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023, which is consistent with the average forecast of $27.3 billion. Analysts predict that Meta will resume growth after the current period.

　　竞争对手Snapchat的母公司Snap周二给出了扭盈为亏的财报数据，导致其股价下跌10%。首席执行官埃文·斯皮格尔(Evan Spiegel)表示，广告下滑似乎正在触底反弹。“广告需求并没有真正改善，但也没有明显恶化。”

The competitor Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, gave figures on Tuesdays for swings and losses, which led to a 10% decline in stock prices. CEO Evan· Evan Spiegel said that the downside of the ad seemed to be repulsing. & ldquao; advertising demand did not really improve, but did not deteriorate significantly. & rdquao;

　　开始盯上人工智能

　　值得一提的是，Meta被外界广泛关注的包含元宇宙业务的部门Reality Labs仍在持续烧钱，该部门2022年第四季度实现7.27亿美元，同比下降17.1%；第四季度亏损额达42.79亿美元，全年亏损额达到137.17亿美元，亏损额同比分别增长29.50%和34.57%。公司表示这是由于虚拟头显（VR headset）Quest的销售额下降。

It is worth mentioning that the sector of Meta, which is of wide concern to the world, Reality Labs, continues to burn money, achieving $727 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, a decrease of 17.1 per cent in the same year; and the fourth quarter, a loss of $4,279 million, a loss of $13,717 million over the year, an increase of 29.50 per cent and 34.57 per cent, respectively. Companies state that this is due to a decline in sales by VR headset Quest.

　　Meta公共政策董事总经理陈澍此前在接受第一财经记者采访时表示，元宇宙的经济潜力前景非常大。“我们跟一些汽车厂商有合作，他们已经可以在原宇宙里设计和测试汽车，这个效果其实远远超过手绘或建造一个概念车来实验。”目前，扎克伯格已经花费数百亿美元打造元宇宙，不过在业内人士看来，目前Meta的多数努力仍处于早期阶段，这意味着大部分投资带来的回报并不会很快。

The director-general of Meta’s public policy, Chen Xin, had previously said, in an interview with the first financial journalist, that the economic potential of the meta-cosm was very promising. & ldquo; we worked with a number of car manufacturers who could design and test cars in the original universe, a result that was far greater than painting or building a concept car to experiment with. & rdquo; currently, Zuckerberg has spent tens of billions of dollars to build the meta-cosm, although, according to industry, most of the current Meta’s efforts are still at an early stage, which means that the return on most investment is not going to be quick.

　　扎克伯格2月1日对投资者提出了公司新的基调：在人工智能的大力帮助下，这家社交媒体巨头将变得更精简、更高效、更果断。他表示，该公司正在使用人工智能来改进其内容推荐的方式——一种让平台对用户和广告商等更具吸引力的策略。

Zuckerberg set a new corporate tone to investors on February 1: the social media giant will become leaner, more efficient, and more decisive, with the strong help of artificial intelligence. He said that the company is using artificial intelligence to improve the way its content is recommended & mdash; & mdash; and a strategy to make the platform more attractive to users and advertisers.

　　他还表示，他希望Meta成为生成式人工智能领域的“领导者”，这是一种快速兴起的技术，可用于制作图形或文学等新颖内容。“你会看到我们今年推出了许多不同的东西，”扎克伯格说。

He also said that he wanted Meta to be &ldquao; leader &rdquao; a fast-growing technology that could be used to create novel content like graphics or literature. & & ldquao; you'll see that we've introduced a lot of different things this year, &rdquao; Zuckerberg says.

　　然而，新的内容推荐方式是否能够帮助Meta重获广告商的青睐还是个未知数，目前Meta仍未摆脱数字广告需求低迷的影响。研究机构Insider Intelligence最新报告指出，Meta和谷歌母公司Alphabet的美国广告营收的合计市场占有率，预计2023年将下滑2.5个百分点至48.4%。Insider Intelligence预计2023年Meta的美国广告营收增长率分别仅有5%。

However, it is still uncertain whether the new content-recommend approach will help Meta regain the favor of advertisers, which is still suffering from low demand for digital advertising. The research institute Insider Intelligence’s latest report indicates that the combined market share of the US ads collected by Meta and Google Mothers Alphabet is expected to decline by 2.5 to 48.4% in 2023.