Meta delivers a blowout quarter in Q1 2025—but can it keep the streak going?
For now, Meta is winning where it counts most: performance.
Meta just pulled off one of its best quarters in years. Revenue surged. Profits soared. Its family apps are growing. And Wall Street was impressed. But behind the headlines, the company is walking a tightrope, battling lawsuits in the US, facing fresh EU backlash, and pouring billions into a Metaverse that still hasn’t paid off.
The numbers are impressive. In its first-quarter earnings report, Meta posted $42.3 billion in revenue, a 16% surge from the same period last year, beating analyst expectations and sending shares up 4% after hours. Net income shot up 35% to $16.64 billion, and earnings per share hit $6.43—well ahead of the $5.22 analysts had predicted.
Even as global economic uncertainty lingers, Meta’s ad business hasn’t blinked. Advertising brought in $41.39 billion for the quarter, outpacing forecasts and underscoring just how critical the company remains to global marketers. Its core platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—also continued to grow, with daily active users reaching 3.43 billion, up from 3.35 billion in the prior quarter.
Meanwhile, Threads, Meta’s fast-growing Twitter alternative, is becoming more than just a side project with 350 million monthly users, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the company’s Q1 2025 earnings call on April 30.
That said, not every part of Meta’s empire is thriving. Its Reality Labs division, home to its ambitious AR and VR efforts, posted a $4.2 billion loss, though even that was slightly less than expected. And while the company trimmed its 2025 expense forecast, it raised projected capital expenditures to as much as $72 billion, with more money going into AI infrastructure and data centres.
Looking ahead, Meta expects second-quarter revenue to land between $42.5 billion and $45.5 billion, keeping pace with analyst expectations. But the road forward won’t be entirely smooth. There’s an ongoing antitrust battle in the U.S., where the Federal Trade Commission is trying to force Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp—an effort that cuts to the heart of how the company built its dominance.
Over in the EU, Meta’s ad-free subscription service has been ruled non-compliant with new digital regulations, a decision the company is appealing. Still, Meta warns that the fallout could degrade user experience in Europe and dent revenue as soon as the third quarter.
For now, Meta is winning where it counts most: performance. But the question isn’t whether the company can beat expectations—it’s whether it can keep doing it with regulators, rivals, and shifting user expectations all closing in.
