Shares in Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms fell by around 12% at times in US after-hours trading on Wednesday after the tech giant released its outlook for the current quarter.
Meta predicted a turnover of between $36.5 billion and $39 billion, the tech giant said in the outlook, released together with its first quarter results. Analysts had expected an average of $38.4 billion.
The company is also preparing for higher costs this year while focussing more on artificial intelligence.
Meta is now forecasting total 2024 expenses to be in the range of $96 billion to $99 billion. The previous forecast was $94 billion to $99 billion.
First quarter results meanwhile exceeded expectations.
Meta's advertising business continued to run at full speed in the quarter. Revenue rose by 27% year-on-year to $36.4 billion. Net income more than doubled from $5.7 billion in 2023 to around $12.4 billion.
An average of 3.24 billion users accessed at least one of the Group's apps, which also include WhatsApp, every day in March, a 7% increase year-over-year.
The business with the digital world Metaverse and virtual reality continues to generate heavy losses. The Reality Labs division posted operating losses of $3.85 billion. In the same quarter of the previous year, it had posted an operating loss of just under $4 billion.