The owner of Facebook and Instagram was hit by a fall in advertising sales in the three months to July which caused the first year-on-year revenue decline in the firm’s history, the BBC reports.
Meta’s total revenue slipped 1% to $28.8bn, but the company fended off a decline in users.
Analysts fear the company’s growth may have peaked after years of large gains.
Rivals such as TikTok have eroded its popularity, while more firms are competing for ad spending.
Meta, which typically commands more than 20% of the global ad market, warned investors that ad sales were likely to fall again in the months ahead, as e-commerce spending falls from its pandemic boom and companies worried about inflation and the war in Ukraine spend more cautiously.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said the firm would reduce its hiring “steadily” over the next year, a response to the downturn and the company’s plans to shift investment into new areas, including its virtual reality platform, Horizon, in a bet that the so-called metaverse is its best prospect for growth.
