Meta Platforms has seen steady growth in China-related revenue due to strong traction from mainland advertisers, as domestic brands vie for consumers in overseas markets.

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Outside Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, USA on February 1. (Photo: Bloomberg)

In 2023, China will account for 10% of Meta's $134.9 billion in total revenue, up from 6% two years earlier, according to financial results Meta released on February 2. Online commerce and gaming benefited from strong demand from advertisers in China to reach people in other markets, CFO Susan Li said. She added that mainland sales contributed 5 percentage points to total revenue growth last year.

The country will also account for a larger share of Meta's revenue in the Asia- Pacific region in 2023, at 38%, up from 27% in 2022.

While China blocks many international social media apps like X (formerly Twitter), Google's YouTube, Facebook and Meta's Instagram, that hasn't stopped the country from becoming a leading advertiser on the platforms. For example, Reuters reported in 2022 that China is X's fastest-growing overseas advertising market and one of its largest sources of revenue outside the U.S. China was also Meta's largest advertising market in Asia in 2017, according to a New York Times report that year.

Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009. In order to access the mainland market, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited here in 2016 and 2017. However, both attempts were unsuccessful and could not get the application approved.

Also on February 2, Meta warned investors about geopolitical risks and the ongoing trade dispute between China and the US.

Meta reported a profit of $14 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, beating analysts' forecasts, as revenue rose to $40.1 billion in the period. The company said Facebook has 3.07 billion monthly users.

In late 2021, Facebook renamed its parent company Meta Platforms to reflect Zuckerberg's vision of a virtual world , the "metaverse," as the next major computing platform.

(According to SCMP)

Meta fired nearly 20,000 employees, business results of Meta exceeded expectations Mark Zuckerberg was so pleased with the “year of efficiency” that it will continue indefinitely. Since 2022, Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram – has fired nearly 20,000 employees.