In Big Tech earnings week, Facebook gets a boost

Investors in Meta saw their stock boosted by 25 percent, as the social media giant posted higher than expected earnings in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The parent company to Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, said it focused on productivity, streamlining and efficiency, adding nearly 80 billion dollars to its market value. But the operational efficiency came at a cost, which included laying off 13 percent of its workforce last November.

In a week of Big Tech reporting, the three Big A's will release earning figures, including Apple, Amazon and Alphabet.

Both Amazon and Google parent Alphabet have cut thousands of jobs in recent months, with Amazon expected to share mixed results due to increased costs of its fulfilment investments.

As for Facebook, daily users of its services grew to an average of two billion in December, equivalent to nearly a quarter of the world's population.

The bigger-than-expected growth helped drive new optimism about the company, reported the BBC, which has been under pressure as its costs rise and advertising sales slump.