US EditionMeta Says Profits Are Surging, but 20 Million Users Just Disappeared
Meta said internet disruptions in Iran and WhatsApp restrictions in Russia helped drive the first quarterly decline in its daily active users.
- On Wednesday, Meta reported its first quarterly decline in "Family daily active people" in seven years, with total users falling by 20 million to 3.56 billion during Q1 2026.
- Zuckerberg attributed the slip to internet disruptions in Iran and a WhatsApp restriction in Russia, though analysts expressed skepticism regarding the company's bundled user metrics.
- Despite the user decline, Meta generated $56.31 billion in advertising revenue, a 33% increase year-over-year, while Reality Labs reported an operating loss of $4.03 billion for the quarter.
- Meta's stock price fell by more than 7 percent following the earnings release as the company announced plans to prioritize "original content" on Instagram and Facebook.
- The company increased projected capital expenditures for 2026 to $125-145 billion, $10 billion more than previous estimates, as Meta plans to pump billions into artificial intelligence investments this year.
11 Articles
11 Articles
Facebook and Instagram losing users, with signs pointing to low-quality feeds
Anecdotally, I’ve been hearing for a very long time that Facebook and Instagram users are growing ever more dissatisfied with their social media feeds, and there now appears to be some hard data to support this. Meta has admitted that its daily active users declined by 20 million this quarter, and the company is taking steps to try to improve the quality of both Facebook and Instagram feeds … more…
Meta lost 20 million users last quarter
Meta is planning to pump billions more into AI investments this year, despite noting that millions of users have seemingly started to abandon its platforms. In an earning call on Wednesday, Meta reported that figures for “Family daily active people” — the term Meta has coined for all collective…
Meta has published its results from the first quarter of 2026 and the figure that everyone is looking at is not the revenue: it is the 20 million daily users that have evaporated between Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Just when Zuckerberg retakes the checkbook for AI. Timing, at least, is uncomfortable. The fall itself was confirmed by the company in its quarterly report, as The Verge said. It is the first time in years that the Meta app fami…
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