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Top Meta Statistics and Facts to Know in 2023
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Facebook has been a part of our everyday lives for almost two decades. A platform that allows users to connect, marketers to generate more revenue, and that lets people voice their opinions, it has definitely left its mark on society.
Now renamed as Meta, the Meta statistics below will give an overview of not just the platform but the company itself, its current state, and its future.
10 Key Meta Statistics for 2023
Mark Zuckerberg stated that 2023 will be Meta’s “year of efficiency.”
More than a third (36%) of Americans get their news from Facebook.
Meta’s revenue dropped to $116.61 billion in 2022.
The company invested $4.2 billion in restructuring in 2022 and will invest another billion in 2023.
Meta stock finally began to show a significant recovery in February of 2023, adding $100 billion to the company’s market value.
Facebook had, on average, 2.963 billion monthly active users in 2022.
Teen Facebook usage dropped to 32% in 2022 from 71% in 2015.
Misinformation on Facebook, from both sides of the political aisle in the US, gets six times more engagement.
Globally, the most common Facebook demographic is men aged 25 to 34, making up 18.4% of its user base.
Meta’s expenditures increased by 23% in 2022 to $87.66 billion.
General Meta Stats and Facts
Meta began testing its Meta Verified subscription service in early 2023.
Taking a page from Twitter, Meta began testing its $ 11.99-a-month verification service for Instagram and Facebook.
Like Twitter, it’s attempting to diversify its sources of revenue by letting celebrities and other public figures hold a blue check mark as proof of their identities.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh believes this may add an extra two to three billion in revenue for 2023, boosting Meta earnings. Musk stated that this move was “inevitable.”
(Bloomberg)
Facebook is the seventh most valuable brand in the world, with an estimated $111.92 billion value.
At the very top of the list, in 2022, was Apple, with a $355.08 billion value. Amazon closely followed Apple, with $350.27 billion, while Google was “only” at $263.43 billion.
Walmart also surpassed Facebook, with $111.92 billion, as did the Samsung Group, with $107.28 billion.
(Statista)
Zuckerberg claims 2023 will be Meta’s “year of efficiency.”
This has already been reflected by the substantial 2022 November layoffs, as well as the four billion dollars the company spent on restructuring in the same year.
Some investors are soothed by this statement, especially when one considers the general trend of substantial layoffs that occurred in 2022 in the tech industry.
(New York Times)
If the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) passes, Meta will consider removing news from Meta subsidiaries.
The JCPA bill will enable news outlets to band together and negotiate with online platforms. This will allow them to participate in part of the revenue these platforms make through said outlets.
Meta, however, believes that the exposure they provide these outlets with is enough, and it refuses to negotiate. The company responded, stating that “we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations.”
(Search Engine Journal)
US Facebook pages reflect a strong ideological divide.
Using popular political Facebook pages as a sample, the Pew Research Center showcased the depth of the ideological divide within America.
Using the assessment of president Biden’s performance in the early days of his tenure, it showed that 67% of people identifying as conservatives had a negative perception of his performance, with only 1% holding a positive view.
On the other hand, 47% of self-identified liberals believed he was doing a good job, with only 1% believing otherwise.
(Pew Research Center)
36% of Americans claim they regularly get their news from Facebook.
However, Facebook statistics do show that this varies by race and gender.
White Americans (60%) are more likely to get their news from Facebook when compared to the Hispanic (18%), Black (13%), and Asian (5%) demographics. Women (65%) are also more likely to get their news from the platform than men (35%).
Furthermore, Americans use Facebook as a source of news much more than YouTube (23%) or Twitter (15%).
(Pew Research)
Meta-Specific Data
Meta revenue dropped to $116.61 billion in 2022.
According to the latest Meta stats, the company saw a 1% decrease in revenue when compared to 2022. According to their investor’s report, if foreign exchange rates had remained stable, the company would have seen an increase of 4% in revenue instead.
What makes matters worse is the significant rise in expenses. In 2022, Meta’s expenditures were at $87.66 billion, a 23% increase when looking at 2021. However, the report also claims that most of this cost was caused by the company’s $4.61 billion restructuring efforts.
(Meta Investors Report)
Meta plans to invest $19.2 billion in the metaverse in 2023.
Meta facts show that while 44% of people think the Metaverse will lead to Facebook’s downfall, the company is sticking to its guns.
For 2023, one analyst believes this will amount to 20% of Meta’s overall expenses, all of which will be directed to Reality Labs, its metaverse division.
The same analyst states that to him, this looks like an investment in a future insurance policy, most likely due to the expected changes the development of the Metaverse will have on the tech landscape by the end of the decade.
(The Guardian)
Meta lost $4.2 billion in restructuring and fired 11,000 people in 2022.
Called one of the most significant job cuts since its founding (and one of the most significant in the tech industry in general), Meta fired 13% of its workforce in November of 2022.
The resultant restructuring, as well as the severance and early termination costs, led to a total of $4.2 billion in costs, with another $1 billion expected in 2023.
(New York Times)
Meta stock had a strong recovery in February of 2023.
After a 60% drop in stock value, current data and Meta facts show that it finally seems to be recovering. For now, 2023 has been good for the company, with a 50% increase in stock value. In fact, February alone saw a 23% boost.
This 23% increase jump-started the company’s market value, adding an extra $100 billion. This is especially important when we consider the difficult economic climate Meta (and the world) has been presented within the past few years.
(New York Times)
Apple’s 2021 privacy update led to a drop of $10 billion in Meta revenue, causing ads to underperform.
The privacy update made it much harder to target and measure ads online. However, Meta began investing in an AI system that can prove to advertisers that users are accessing and learning about their services through Meta product ads.
For example, its “28-day attribution window” metric, removed in 2020, made a comeback thanks to Meta’s new modeling and machine learning tools. The metric is vital for advertisers (and Meta) because it helps advertisers determine just how impactful an ad is. It will also help Meta have a clear view of Instagram and Facebook ad revenue.
(Business Insider)
At the 2021 Congressional Hearings, Meta had its “Big Tobacco moment.”
At an October 2021 Senate Commerce subcommittee investigating documents that show Meta (then Facebook) was aware of the damaging effect Instagram can have, “specifically teen girls.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal opened the hearing with the above sentence, while Frances Haugen, a former Facebook project manager who leaked company documentation on the matter, stated that “Facebook is prioritizing profit over people.”
(Time)
Facts About Facebook
Facebook had, on average, 2.963 billion monthly active users in 2022.
Furthermore, 67% of these users log in daily – a total of 2 billion active daily Facebook users. Despite the claims that Facebook usage is dropping, there was a 2% increase in monthly users, and a 4% in daily users, when compared to 2021.
(Meta Investors Report)
Facebook demographics data shows that Teen usage dropped from 71% in 2015 to 32% in 2022.
In fact, there was an 8-year-over-year percentage point drop in Facebook usage when it comes to the 12 to 17 demographic. In comparison, Instagram saw a four percentage point increase in users from the same demographics, while TikTok saw a six percentage point increase.
Furthermore, 25% of Gen Zers (18 to 25) plan to spend much less time on Facebook in 2023, while 7% claim they will completely stop using the platform.
(Forrester, Pew Research)
Men aged 25 to 34 are the most common Facebook demographic on a global level.
In fact, 18.4% of all global users fall into the male 25 to 34 category. In comparison, 12.6% of female users are of the same age.
Generally, when looking at Facebook as Meta’s main product, meta user demographics also show that the app is used the least by men older than 65, making up 2.5% of its audience. It also has very little usage by adolescent girls between the ages of 13 and 17, taking 2.4% of the share.
In general, usage by gender does not vary to any substantial degree, with the exclusion of the 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 demographics. However, in terms of age, the usage share rises sharply and consistently until it reaches the 25 to 34 user base and then starts dropping off gradually.
(Statista)
Misinformation on Facebook gets six times more engagement than factual posts do.
The study depended on the NewsGuard, and Media Bias/Fact Check organizations, who categorized different Facebook publishers based on their trustworthiness.
The study found that those publishers categorized as misinformation sources received much more engagement. However, among the Facebook facts they gathered, they also found that both right and left-leaning misinformation sources received higher levels of engagement.
Facebook responded by stating that engagements do not necessarily reflect their beliefs, as well as claiming that they have 80 fact-checking partners filtering out fake news.
(Washington Post)
In 2018, less than 26% of Facebook’s users were aware the platform kept a list of their interests and traits for advertisers.
While now it’s common knowledge, especially thanks to the scandals of the last few years, that Facebook collects data on its users, it was not as well known just half a decade ago.
Of the people polled, 51% expressed they felt uncomfortable with Facebook keeping a list of user traits and interests. However, 27% claimed these lists are not accurate.
(Pew Research)
Facebook keeping up with TikTok led to more video content and the “discovery engine.”
Around 51% of people believe TikTok will overtake Facebook in the near future, according to polled data and Facebook usage statistics. According to NPR, two signs Facebook is aware of this problem are the pushing of more video content that began in 2022, as well as the “discovery engine.”
The discovery engine is the term Zuckerberg uses for the AI technology that curates the content you see on your Facebook feed, replacing many of the posts from friends and family that you usually see.
(NPR)
In 2021 the personal data of 533 million Facebook users was leaked.
This data contained phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, birthdates, email addresses, and locations of users from 106 different countries. Of the 533 million point records, 32 million came from the US, and 11 million were from UK users.
(Business Insider)
Final Thoughts
Meta is in an odd place. On the one hand, Facebook is copying Twitter with its subscription-based verification options and TikTok with the inclusion of more video content through Reels and Facebook Stories. On the other hand, it’s playing the long game, advancing the Metaverse, and both driving and preparing for the future of the Internet.
While there are no exact, current numbers on the revenue of Meta’s individual products (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram…), and while Meta’s annual revenue is slightly down, the company seems to be regaining its bearings and strengthening its stock. Only time will tell whether Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse gambit will pan out.
Meta FAQ
When was Meta founded?
Facebook, the company was founded in February 2004 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, the name change, announced in October 2021, became official on June 6, 2022.
(Forbes)
How many people use Meta?
When looking at Meta usage, we need to observe the number of people using one of its core products — WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.
According to the newest data on Meta monthly active users in the last quarter of 2022, there were a total of 3.74 billion people using at least one of these products on a monthly basis, on average.
(Statista)
What industry is Meta in?
The company is in the Communication Services sector, in the internet content and information industry, according to Yahoo Finance.
(Yahoo Finance)
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