#meta-platforms

#meta-platforms

Magnificent Seven and their buddies

When WIRED attempted to post a link on Facebook, we received a message that read: "Posts that look like spam according to our Community Guidelines are blocked on Facebook and can't be edited." Hours later, however, that message was updated to read: "Your content couldn't be shared, because this link goes against our Community Standards." The message linked to Meta's Community Standards homepage rather than a specific part of those rules.

Meta's simultaneous subscription testing across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp isn't about innovation. It's about insurance. The world's most profitable advertising machine doesn't diversify revenue streams when the core business is thriving. Meta Platforms ( NASDAQ:META) generated a 40.1% operating margin in Q3 2025, with revenue of $51.24 billion growing 26.2% year-over-year. Trailing twelve-month earnings per share reached $22.61. The subscription push reveals three pressure points.

Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced Wednesday that it is turning Threads into a much bigger business as the app matures into a fast-growing conversation hub. At the same time, the company's new AI lab starts producing models meant to power more consumer products and ad tools. Two years after launch, Threads has grown into a distinct community-driven platform with its own voices and niches, and it now reaches more than 400 million monthly active users, the company said in its blog.

Meta Platforms ( NASDAQ:META) has been a one-trick pony for most of its existence. The company makes almost all of its revenue from online ads. While other tech giants have diversified beyond their original revenue source, Facebook's parent company still heavily relies on ads, but that may finally change. The tech company is starting to see early signs of success as it diversifies beyond ad revenue thanks to AI. These are some of the things investors should monitor as Meta Platforms seeks to produce big gains for investors after a relatively slow 2025.

Meta Platforms Inc. convinced a federal appeals court to certify a question about whether its terms of service and community standards created an obligation for the company to combat scam advertisements. Whether the terms of service and community standards impose a legally enforceable obligation on Meta is a question with substantial grounds for differing opinions, the US District Court for the Northern District of California said Thursday.

A lot of mega-cap tech titans are ending off 2025 on a high note with big acquisitions. Meta Platforms ( NASDAQ:META) joined in the year-end deal-making spree by buying up AI agent startup Manus in a deal reportedly worth over $2 billion. Undoubtedly, Manus is an incredible technology that's already gained quite the following, with around $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

Meta Platforms has demonstrated a tendency for swift rallies. The stock has experienced increases of over 50% within a span of two months on six separate occasions, particularly in 2012 and 2023. Moreover, it has risen more than 30% within two months on eleven occasions, with significant surges in 2013 and 2025. If historical trends continue, forthcoming catalysts could propel Meta's shares to impressive new heights, benefiting investors with substantial returns.

Shares of Meta Platforms have advanced 13% year to date, bringing its market value to $1.6 trillion. Meanwhile, shares of Google parent Alphabet have advanced 64%, bringing the company's market value to $3.7 trillion. Three top hedge fund managers bought both stocks in the third quarter. Israel Englander of Millennium Management added 793,500 shares of Meta Platforms and 2.2 million shares of Alphabet. Both stocks rank among his top 10 holdings.

Last year, Meta had to reckon with an ugly conclusion about its Chinese advertising customers: They were defrauding Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users worldwide. Though China's authoritarian government bans use of Meta social media by its citizens, Beijing lets Chinese companies advertise to foreign consumers on the globe-spanning platforms. As a result, Meta's advertising business was thriving in China, ultimately reaching over $18 billion in annual sales in 2024, more than a tenth of the company's global revenue. But Meta calculated that about 19% of that money - more than $3 billion - was coming from ads for scams, illegal gambling, pornography and other banned content, according to internal Meta documents reviewed by Reuters.