Meta fell 3.7% as technology stocks sold off. The stock is giving back part of its Muse rally, rather than pricing in a new setback in its own business.
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Meta Platforms runs Facebook and Instagram, alongside messaging services such as Messenger and WhatsApp. Marketers pay to place ads that reach users, build awareness or generate leads. Advertising on Facebook and Instagram supplies nearly all of the company’s revenue, making these apps the center of its business.
That income depends on people continuing to use the apps and on advertisers finding the results worth paying for. Marketers generally make no long-term spending commitments. Most revenue comes from mobile advertising, so Meta also depends on operating systems and browsers it does not control. Apple’s changes have already limited ad targeting and measurement. Privacy laws restrict how Meta uses data for advertising; in Europe, it offers no-ads subscriptions and a less-personalized advertising option under continuing regulatory scrutiny.
Reality Labs sells consumer hardware, software and content related to virtual and augmented reality. It brings in much less revenue than the apps and operates at a loss. Continued investment in this business depends on profits from Meta’s other operations.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Meta's advertising results hinge on user engagement and effective ad targeting, making ByteDance's TikTok an important rival for users and advertisers missing from this list.
Alphabet's Google Search and YouTube vie with Meta's Facebook and Instagram for marketers paying to win customers or build brand awareness. Watch Search and YouTube advertising revenue for a read on those competing budgets.
Snap's Snapchat competes with Meta's Instagram for attention to visual messaging and short-form content, and for advertisers paying to build brands or prompt purchases. Watch engagement in Snapchat's Stories and Spotlight alongside its advertising results.
Pinterest competes with Meta's Instagram and Facebook for brands and retailers bidding to reach shoppers from product discovery through purchase. Its campaigns aimed at checkout or adding items to a cart are worth watching: online commerce was Meta's largest source of advertising revenue growth in 2025.
Reddit and Meta both earn advertising revenue by selling businesses access to audiences built through user participation. Reddit's ads use interests, communities and conversations to find relevant audiences, making its advertising performance a useful comparison for engagement-based ad demand.
Amazon competes with Meta for marketers' budgets through sponsored shopping ads and video advertising, especially campaigns aimed at online purchases.
AppLovin's Axon competes with Meta for advertisers paying to acquire customers with measurable results. Axon Ads Manager matches advertisers with publishers' ad space toward their return-on-ad-spend goals, so its effectiveness is the comparison to watch against Meta's targeting and measurement tools.
The Trade Desk competes with Meta for campaign budgets by helping agencies and advertisers buy ad space outside Meta's apps, rather than selling its own media. It charges a fee generally tied to spending through its platform, making that spending a useful window on demand for alternatives to Meta's ads.
Microsoft competes with Meta for advertisers' spending through Bing and LinkedIn; both companies also invest heavily in the computing infrastructure needed for AI.
Apple affects Meta both through iOS privacy policies that materially shape advertising measurement and through Vision Pro, which competes with Meta's Quest devices sold to consumers.
Meta has committed to buying AI computing capacity from Nebius under multi-year, multi-billion-dollar contracts. Watch Nebius's delivery of that capacity: it says these large contracts require substantial upfront investment and that it has limited experience delivering them at scale.
Criteo competes with Meta for retailers paying to turn advertising into online sales, using shopping data to deliver personalized ads. Watch its Performance Media and Retail Media businesses against Meta's commerce-driven ad growth; online commerce was Meta's largest contributor to advertising revenue growth in 2025.
Meta's north-Louisiana data center depends on Entergy Louisiana's planned power generation and transmission infrastructure to supply electricity. Watch Entergy's construction and regulatory proceedings: the generating units were expected to enter service in 2028 and 2029, and the service arrangement faces questions over customer credit protections.
Meta Platforms, Inc. earningsThis company
Meta earns most of its revenue from ads, and this report will show whether activity on its apps is translating into more ad impressions and higher prices.
Read ad impressions delivered alongside the average price per ad. If both rise, advertiser demand and ad performance are supporting prices enough to offset the mix of lower-monetizing placements such as Reels. If impressions grow but the average price weakens, added activity is converting less effectively into revenue, and the quality of ad growth is the question.
Alphabet Inc. earningsGOOG
Alphabet's Search and YouTube ads compete with Meta for marketer budgets, and its report will show how much advertisers are spending on those alternatives.
Look at Search and YouTube advertising separately. Strength in both would show that advertisers are still spending in channels that compete with Meta for budgets. Weakness in both could signal tighter ad budgets, but Alphabet's results alone cannot establish that demand for Meta's ads is also falling.
Amazon.Com Inc earningsAMZN
Amazon's shopping and video ads compete for budgets aimed at online purchases, and its report will show how that spending channel is faring.
Watch Amazon's advertising results, especially ads tied to shopping. Strength would show marketers are still funding campaigns aimed at online purchases, while also underscoring competition for Meta's commerce-related ad budgets. Weakness could point to cooling spend in this channel, but would not directly establish how Meta's ad revenue is changing.
Applovin Corporation earningsAPP
AppLovin's Axon competes with Meta for advertisers seeking measurable results, making AppLovin's report a read on this performance-focused alternative.
Watch AppLovin's advertising results for signs that advertisers seeking measurable customer acquisition are spending through its platform. Strength would show that this pool of performance-focused budgets is active and that Meta faces a rival for it. Weakness would offer less evidence of pressure from this competitor, but would not prove Meta's targeting and measurement tools are more effective.
Entergy Corporation earningsETR
Meta's north-Louisiana data center depends on power infrastructure planned by Entergy Louisiana, and Entergy's report can show how the related construction and regulatory proceedings are progressing.
Watch progress on the related generation and transmission work, and whether regulatory proceedings address the service arrangement and customer credit protections. Construction progress and clearer protections would make the planned power supply for Meta's data center more certain; delays or unresolved protections would leave its timing and delivery less certain.
Snap Inc. earningsSNAP
Snap's Stories and Spotlight compete with Instagram for attention to visual and short-form content and for brand ad budgets, and its report will show how both are faring.
Read Snapchat engagement alongside Snap's advertising results. Sustained engagement with strong advertising would show that Snap is holding attention and drawing marketers, making competition for Instagram's users and brand budgets more tangible. Weaker engagement or ads would mean less momentum at this rival, not prove users or budgets have shifted to Meta.
Nebius Group N.V. earningsNBIS
Meta has committed to buy AI computing capacity from Nebius under multi-year contracts, and Nebius's report can show its ability to build and deliver that capacity.
Watch whether Nebius is building and delivering computing capacity, and whether it can fund the large upfront investment required. Solid delivery progress and funding would make Meta's contracted AI capacity more credible; delays or financial strain would weaken confidence that this supplier can provide it.
