Nicola Mendelsohn, Head of Global Business Group at Meta, sat down with Yahoo Finance’s Allie Garfinkel at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. Mendelsohn spoke about Meta’s latest earnings, Facebook’s growing global user base and what role AI will play in the future of social media companies. “There are now 3.8 billion people joining our community every month, and 3 billion people are accessing our platform every day. So this is the highest amount we have ever seen,” said Mendelsohn. told Garfinkle. The move led Facebook and Meta (META) to $28.65 billion in revenue in the first quarter, up 3% year-on-year and up after three straight quarters of revenue declines. Mendelsohn said Meta is very competitive in the advertising space, despite increasing competition. “Advertisers talking to me or coming to me and talking to me is absolutely key to helping us grow their business and reach important consumers. and the fact that they are looking at it,” she said. As for AI, Mendelsohn said Meta routinely uses AI in a variety of ways, including targeting news feeds and ads and removing what it deems to be “harmful content.” “We also use it to remove all kinds of harmful content and misinformation from our platform,” she said. “We do that through machine learning and AI.”
Key Video Moments:
00:00:25 Expanding Facebook Reach
00:01:15 Who will win the advertising war
00:04:30 How Meta uses AI
video transcript
Ally Garfinkel: We are coming to Milken 2023. And I’m here with Nicola Mendelsohn, Head of Meta’s Global Business Group. Nicola, thank you very much for joining us.
Nicola Mendelsohn: I am very happy to be here.thank you for calling me
Ally Garfinkel: So let’s start with the first quarter earnings. You guys have completely smashed it. What impressed you?
Nicola Mendelsohn: There’s been a lot going on over the last quarter. But really, this is the result of hard work that all the teams have been working on over the last few months. It especially starts with the size of the community. So the community currently has 3.8 billion people joining every month. And 3 billion people visit our platform every day. I mean, this is the highest amount we’ve seen so far.
If you break down some of these numbers a little further and think about something like Facebook in the US, you can see that there are currently 200 million people visiting it every day. It’s the largest ever. So I think it starts with community growth. And I think that’s supported by our view of advertising revenue, which was the highest ever for the first quarter.
Ally Garfinkel: And I would really like to see the numbers in these ads. Because across the industry, we’ve seen Alphabet, Roku, and Snap say digital advertising is still in trouble. But Meta is cooking. So where does that groove come from?
Nicola Mendelsohn: See, there’s still a lot of competition out there, right? So we have to work hard for every dollar, pound, euro and cent out there. But what advertisers tell me, come and talk to me, is absolutely key to helping us grow their business and reach important consumers. and the fact that they see
And they want us to know what the new product is. And we have a lot of new products that we’re really looking forward to, and I think that’s partly contributed to that growth.
Ally Garfinkel: Tell me, what are you hearing from the advertisers now? Because the story is they pulled out.
Nicola Mendelsohn: So what I’m hearing is that in terms of how they’re looking at things right now, things are stable. That is, we have experienced a period of real change, and many changes that people could not have imagined that things could not have happened. But I think people are now more comfortable and confident about what those uncertainties are. And they weave them. I think that will get us to a point where the chaos is mostly normalized, and then we can enter a more stable environment.
Ally Garfinkel: So what are the flagship products you’re really talking about in terms of products that advertisers are excited about right now?
Nicola Mendelsohn: Oh there are some. So I would be negligent if I didn’t talk about reels. This is he one of our fastest growing products. And what we’ve seen in the last few months is that the amount of reels shared daily has doubled to his 2 billion reels. And that’s people commenting, sharing, discussing, and really enjoying the content they’re watching.
And much of it is underpinned by the investments we’ve made in artificial intelligence and machine learning. That’s one. That’s really exciting.
The second is about messaging. Messaging, WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, and also Messenger are three very exciting messaging platforms that allow advertisers to reach people in new and different ways. And we found that using his one of our products called Click To actually allows advertisers to start a conversation with him in a separate thread. The current run rate is $10 billion.
Well, I travel a lot for roles. It’s a global role. And I have been to Brazil. I have been to Singapore. I have been to India. I have been to Korea. And it’s been really interesting to see some use cases for big companies and advertisers, one of which was his JioMart. They basically built him an entire supermarket within WhatsApp with 20,000 SKUs. A person can walk into a store, pick up groceries, arrange delivery and payment all within a separate thread, and of course do the same next week.
So it’s really exciting to see the growth of some of these products. And finally we arrived here in Milken. We’re all talking about AI here, right? So last August we announced a suite of AI-powered products called the Advantage Plus product. This can be very helpful in getting the performance you want while reducing the cost of actually reaching the people that matter to your advertisers.
These are the different products that we have in terms of how we reach people, how we measure, and what kind of creative advertisers can come up with. And they do different things. Ultimately, though, it’s important to deliver strong ROI and reduce the amount of manual steps required to get your campaigns on the platform. This is the beginning of a really exciting journey for us in this field.
Ally Garfinkel: And how do you distill it? If so, what exactly is Meta’s role in the AI industry at this point?
Nicola Mendelsohn: So this is not new territory for us. So, we’ve been working on AI since the introduction of his Feed in 2006. And use it in three different ways. So, we use it to surface and bubble up the best content in our feeds for our 3.8 billion users who see what matters most to you. That’s where it all starts.
We also use it to remove any kind of harmful content or misinformation from our platform. We do it through machine learning and AI. And finally, on the advertising side and product monetization, really, it’s about making sure you’re getting the right product in front of the right people at the right time. These are the different methods we use today.
Ally Garfinkel: And, of course, cost reduction is a big theme at Meta. So I wanted to know how you feel about the company’s trajectory in light of the headcount cuts.
Nicola Mendelsohn: Yes, you see, layoffs are never easy for any company. And it’s not just seen in technology companies, but across the businesses themselves at this point. But in terms of my feelings about the company, I am very excited. I’m very excited about the North Star vision that Mark is presenting there, what he’s betting on, and everything else, I mean, everything we’ve talked about, but if they don’t If so, I will be lazy too. We talk about the AR and VR worlds and our bet on the Metaverse.
I don’t think very many CEOs are bold and brave enough to bet on what could happen in five or ten years. So that community, through the different stages of digital that we’ve seen, to where we are today, to where we all end up having some kind of virtual reality experience. Until now, I’m very excited about how we’re going to transition and what the future holds. . Well, I’m very excited.
Ally Garfinkel: That’s the penultimate question I wanted to ask. Meta in 5 years, how will it change and why?
Nicola Mendelsohn: Wow, that’s a very difficult question to ask someone at a tech company, isn’t it? Could you imagine five years ago that you’d be talking about the things you’re talking about? Probably not, but the clue is in the last few things I shared. That said, I am very excited about the prospects of virtual reality and the impact it will have on our lives in all aspects. From the way we live, the way our children are educated.
And it would be great to see young members of my family wear this to experience deep sea diving, climb Machu Picchu from the living room of the house, or travel to places they’ve never been before. ? I mean, I think it’s amazing. And that is what we can do today.
Thinking about how we collaborate and brainstorm in the world of work, and how it changes the way people socialize. I think about pop concerts, football games, things that were always reserved for a few people, but now they’re open to more people to have those kinds of experiences. .
And, of course, new jobs will be created for the entire environment, for individuals, for creators, for people with followers, of a kind we can’t even imagine yet. And one of my favorite new jobs I’ve heard is-
Ally Garfinkel: tell me
Nicola Mendelsohn: –I’m a digital avatar stylist. We can already see that various contents have been downloaded his 1 billion times now.
Ally Garfinkel: Is it a growth industry?
Nicola Mendelsohn: It’s a new role. And again, who knew it was? That is what we are already seeing today. Who knows where these new jobs and opportunities will emerge in the future.
Ally Garfinkel: One last personal question, you were diagnosed with cancer in 2016. Founded the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation in 2019. Then the new coronavirus hit. So the question is, what do you think of leadership in a time of heightened uncertainty from all sides?
Nicola Mendelsohn: Yes, thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about it. And to get such a diagnosis is just, at the very moment. And it’s something that can rock not only you but your family and friends around you. But I laid the groundwork. This is an incurable disease with which I live.
And I think what I’ve learned through all of this is not to be afraid to be vulnerable. If you are weak, people will be weak too. But I think it’s also important to give people hope. I am determined to find a cure for this cancer. And if anyone would like to travel with me on this matter, I have found the people of Milken to be incredibly hospitable here.
And I’m doing my best. And I would like to hear your opinion. However, I think it certainly means acknowledging the difficulties in which you are placed. But at the same time, be sure to draw the North Star and the horizon of the place you are going to reach. My horizon, I’m going to find a cure for this disease.
Ally Garfinkel: Mrs. Nicola Mendelsohn, thank you very much for joining us.
Nicola Mendelsohn: Thank you for calling me.
