Facebook’s Australian arm saw revenue grow by $110 million to $1.46 billion in 2024, but its greedy parent company gobbled up all of that additional revenue in service charges according to regulatory filings.
The 20-year-old social media is barely profitable in Australia, just getting by on margins similar to the restaurant industry, at 3.2%, according to its 2024 financial statements filed over the weekend.
Facebook Australia’s profit rose $1.5 million to $48.6m for the 12 months after paying $44 million in income tax.
Parent company Meta swallowed all of the local increase in revenue in service fees, which rose from $1.14 billion in 2023 to $1.25B in 2024. That figure’s increased by $100 million annually – around 9%, for the last two years. That means costs are rising faster than sales revenue, which increased by around 8.5%.
Facebook Australia is a mere reseller of advertising services for its US-founded, but registered in Ireland for tax purposes Facebook, meaning it buys ad spots on Facebook offshore, re-selling them here for a higher price.
Overall, Meta, which includes Instagram and the WhatsApp chat service, is estimated to generate around $5 billion in revenue in Australia according to competition regulator the ACCC, but only Facebook has a local subsidiary, requiring it to lodge financial statements here. These revenue figures include advertising on Facebook and some from Instagram.
It also reveals a cut in Facebook’s Australian headcount, with 31 fewer staff than two years ago, employing 125 people now.
Billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg’s been having a tough time of late, between US court hearings and legal actions around the world, as whistleblowers reveal the less-than-pleasant inner workings of the social media giant.
Last month Meta was ordered by a US court to provide details on how scammers use the social media platform to create scams ads as part of legal action by Dr Andrew Forrest. The WA mining billionaire, who featured in more than 230,000 Facebook scam ads, which have cost Australians hundreds of millions of dollars, has been doing battle with Zuckerberg both here and in California for the last three years. Facebook’s defence is that it’s not responsible and has immunity.
Consumer advocacy group Choice gave Meta a ‘Shonky’ award last year for not tackling scam ads.
There’s also a fight over copyright after Meta used pirated books by Australian authors to train its AI.
Zuckerberg’s also been in court, giving evidence in a US anti-trust case that may force the company to reorganise how it operates.
On a seperate front, Careless People, a memoir by Kiwi Sarah Wynn-Williams of her time as Facebook’s former director of global public policy, went Streisand Effect viral after Meta tried to block her from promoting it.
All that comes on top of Australia raising the age for teens to use social media from 13 to 16, while the company also tried to walk away from a deal to support Australian media, which led to the government to force Meta to contribute.
Meta releases its March quarter results this Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk shipped the last $3.4 million left in Twitter Australia out of the country last year, having booked no revenue in 2024. The business was to be deregistered last year, but like most Musk projects, that’s also running behind schedule.
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