Meta slows down: revenue down for the first time. Zuckerberg: "Doing more with less"

Meta, the holding company that controls Facebook, recorded

second quarter with pessimistic forecasts for the third quarter.

It is the first time that the company has reported a decline in its revenues.

The stock, after closing on Wall Street up 10%, fell 6% in the after hour.

Group revenue stood at

, down nearly 1% from the previous year, while net income fell 36% to $ 6.7 billion, down for the third. quarter in a row.

On the other hand, the daily active user base rose to

, up from 1.96 billion three months ago and an expected decline. 

To weigh on Meta's results, as happened for Google and Snap, is above all the

.

For the third quarter Meta expects revenues between 26 and 28.5 billion dollars, down from the 30.4 billion expected by analysts. 

"This outlook reflects the weakness in advertising demand we experienced throughout the second quarter and which we believe is driven by broader macroeconomic uncertainty," said Chief Financial Officer

.

Furthermore, Meta like other big US companies is affected by the weight of the strong dollar.

It also has to do with the competition from other platforms such as TikTok.

"We will have to do more with less," said

who acknowledged that "the situation looks worse than it was three months ago", expecting to slow down the pace of investment and "reduce staff growth next year". 

Meta has 84,000 employees worldwide, 32% more than a year ago. 

As of June 30, 3.65 billion people around the world were using at least one of the group's four channels each month (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger).

"Make Instagram Instagram again"

The weight of an increasingly aggressive competition, however, is felt so much that it pushes the group to review the ways in which content is used, increasingly using artificial intelligence to recommend posts to Facebook and Instagram users.

Enough to unleash a revolt.

The choice to show more and more videos on the latter did not please everyone and millions of followers including

(over 600 million followers in two) ask that the social network stop imitating TikTok to the cry of " Make Instagram Instagram Again ".

The appeal was answered by Instagram number one

.

"I have to be honest. I believe a lot of Instagram will be video over time," he said according to the Wall Street Journal.

"We have to evolve because the world changes rapidly and we have to change with it."