Meta Platforms (META) 10-K2022 FY Annual report

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, our business strategy and plans, and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.

We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

Unless expressly indicated or the context requires otherwise, the terms "Meta," "company," "we," "us," and "our" in this document refer to Meta Platforms, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and, where appropriate, its subsidiaries. The term "Family" refers to our Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp products. For references to accessing Meta's products on the "web" or via a "website," such terms refer to accessing such products on personal computers. For references to accessing Meta's products on "mobile," such term refers to accessing such products via a mobile application or via a mobile-optimized version of our websites such as m.facebook.com, whether on a mobile phone or tablet.

The numbers for our key metrics are calculated using internal company data based on the activity of user accounts. We report our estimates of the numbers of our daily active people (DAP), monthly active people (MAP), and average revenue per person (ARPP) (collectively, our "Family metrics") based on the activity of users who visited at least one of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp (collectively, our "Family" of products) during the applicable period of measurement. We have historically reported the numbers of our daily active users (DAUs), monthly active users (MAUs), and average revenue per user (ARPU) (collectively, our "Facebook metrics") based on user activity only on Facebook and Messenger and not on our other products. We believe our Family metrics better reflect the size of our community and the fact that many people are using more than one of our products. As a result, over time we intend to report our Family metrics as key metrics in place of DAUs, MAUs, and ARPU in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage of our products across large online and mobile populations around the world. The methodologies used to measure these metrics require significant judgment and are also susceptible to algorithm or other technical errors. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our estimates of our user base, and such estimates may change due to improvements or changes in our methodology. We regularly review our processes for calculating these metrics, and from time to time we discover inaccuracies in our metrics or make adjustments to improve their accuracy, which can result in adjustments to our historical metrics. Our ability to recalculate our historical metrics may be impacted by data limitations or other factors that require us to apply different methodologies for such adjustments. We generally do not intend to update previously disclosed Family metrics for any such inaccuracies or adjustments that are within the error margins disclosed below.

In addition, our Family metrics and Facebook metrics estimates will differ from estimates published by third parties due to differences in methodology.

Many people in our community have user accounts on more than one of our products, and some people have multiple user accounts within an individual product. Accordingly, for our Family metrics, we do not seek to count the total number of user accounts across our products because we believe that would not reflect the actual size of our community. Rather, our Family metrics represent our estimates of the number of unique people using at least one of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. We do not require people to use a common identifier or link their accounts to use multiple products in our Family, and therefore must seek to attribute multiple user accounts within and across products to individual people. To calculate these metrics, we rely upon complex techniques, algorithms and machine learning models that seek to count the individual people behind user accounts, including by matching multiple user accounts within an individual product and across multiple products when we believe they are attributable to a single person, and counting such group of accounts as one person. These techniques and models require significant judgment, are subject to data and other limitations discussed below, and inherently are subject to statistical variances and uncertainties. We estimate the potential error in our Family metrics primarily based on user survey data, which itself is subject to error as well. While we expect the error margin for our Family metrics to vary from period to period, we estimate that such margin generally will be approximately 3% of our worldwide MAP. At our scale, it is very difficult to attribute multiple user accounts within and across products to individual people, and it is possible that the actual numbers of unique people using our products may vary significantly from our estimates, potentially beyond our estimated error margins. As a result, it is also possible that our Family metrics may indicate changes or trends in user numbers that do not match actual changes or trends.

To calculate our estimates of Family DAP and MAP, we currently use a series of machine learning models that are developed based on internal reviews of limited samples of user accounts and calibrated against user survey data. We apply significant judgment in designing these models and calculating these estimates. For example, to match user accounts within individual products and across multiple products, we use data signals such as similar device information, IP addresses, and user names. We also calibrate our models against data from periodic user surveys of varying sizes and frequency across our products, which are inherently subject to error. The timing and results of such user surveys have in the past contributed, and may in the future contribute, to changes in our reported Family metrics from period to period. In addition, our data limitations may affect our understanding of certain details of our business and increase the risk of error for our Family metrics estimates. Our techniques and models rely on a variety of data signals from different products, and we rely on more limited data signals for some products compared to others. For example, as a result of limited visibility into encrypted products, we have fewer

We regularly evaluate our Family metrics to estimate the percentage of our MAP consisting solely of "violating" accounts. We define "violating" accounts as accounts which we believe are intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, including bots and spam. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we estimated that approximately 3% of our worldwide MAP consisted solely of violating accounts. Such estimation is based on an internal review of a limited sample of accounts, and we apply significant judgment in making this determination. For example, we look for account information and behaviors associated with Facebook and Instagram accounts that appear to be inauthentic to the reviewers, but we have limited visibility into WhatsApp user activity due to encryption. In addition, if we believe an individual person has one or more violating accounts, we do not include such person in our violating accounts estimation as long as we believe they have one account that does not constitute a violating account. From time to time, we disable certain user accounts, make product changes, or take other actions to reduce the number of violating accounts among our users, which may also reduce our DAP and MAP estimates in a particular period. We intend to disclose our estimates of the percentage of our MAP consisting solely of violating accounts on an annual basis. Violating accounts are very difficult to measure at our scale, and it is possible that the actual number of violating accounts may vary significantly from our estimates.

The numbers of Family DAP and MAP discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as ARPP, do not include users on our other products, unless they would otherwise qualify as DAP or MAP, respectively, based on their other activities on our Family products.

We regularly evaluate our Facebook metrics to estimate the number of "duplicate" and "false" accounts among our MAUs. A duplicate account is one that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account. We divide "false" accounts into two categories: (1) user-misclassified accounts, where users have created personal profiles for a business, organization, or non-human entity such as a pet (such entities are permitted on Facebook using a Page rather than a personal profile under our terms of service); and (2) violating accounts, which represent user profiles that we believe are intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as bots and spam. The estimates of duplicate and false accounts are based on an internal review of a limited sample of accounts, and we apply significant judgment in making this determination. For example, to identify duplicate accounts we use data signals such as identical IP addresses and similar user names, and to identify false accounts we look for names that appear to be fake or other behavior that appears inauthentic to the reviewers. Any loss of access to data signals we use in this process, whether as a result of our own product decisions, actions by third-party browser or mobile platforms, regulatory or legislative requirements, or other factors, also may impact the stability or accuracy of our estimates of duplicate and false accounts. Our estimates also may change as our methodologies evolve, including through the application of new data signals or technologies or product changes that may allow us to identify previously undetected duplicate or false accounts and may improve our ability to evaluate a broader population of our users. Duplicate and false accounts are very difficult to measure at our scale, and it is possible that the actual number of duplicate and false accounts may vary significantly from our estimates.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, we estimated that duplicate accounts may have represented approximately 11% of our worldwide MAUs. We believe the percentage of duplicate accounts is meaningfully higher in developing markets such as the Philippines and Vietnam, as compared to more developed markets. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we estimated that false accounts may have represented approximately 4-5% of our worldwide MAUs. Our estimation of false accounts can vary as a result of episodic spikes in the creation of such accounts, which we have seen originate more frequently in specific countries such as Indonesia, Nigeria, and Vietnam. From time to time, we disable certain user accounts, make product changes, or take other actions to reduce the number of duplicate or false accounts among our users, which may also reduce our DAU and

The numbers of DAUs and MAUs discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as ARPU, do not include users on Instagram, WhatsApp, or our other products, unless they would otherwise qualify as DAUs or MAUs, respectively, based on their other activities on Facebook.

Our data regarding the geographic location of our users is estimated based on a number of factors, such as the user's IP address and self-disclosed location. These factors may not always accurately reflect the user's actual location. For example, a user may appear to be accessing Facebook from the location of the proxy server that the user connects to rather than from the user's actual location. The methodologies used to measure our metrics are also susceptible to algorithm or other technical errors, and our estimates for revenue by user location and revenue by user device are also affected by these factors.

Our mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

All of our products, including our apps, share the vision of helping to bring the metaverse to life. We build technology that helps people connect and share, find communities, and grow businesses. Our useful and engaging products enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables. We also help people discover and learn about what is going on in the world around them, enable people to share their experiences, ideas, photos and videos, and other activities with audiences ranging from their closest family members and friends to the public at large, and stay connected everywhere by accessing our products. Meta is moving our offerings beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the metaverse, which we believe is the next evolution in social technology. Our vision for the metaverse does not center on any single product, but rather an entire ecosystem of experiences, devices, and new technologies. While the metaverse is in the very early stages of its development, we believe it will become the next computing platform and the future of social interaction.

We report financial results for two segments: Family of Apps (FoA) and Reality Labs (RL). Currently, we generate substantially all of our revenue from selling advertising placements on our family of apps to marketers, which is reflected in FoA. Ads on our platforms enable marketers to reach people across a range of marketing objectives, such as generating leads or driving awareness. Marketers purchase ads that can appear in multiple places including on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and third-party applications and websites. RL reflects our efforts to develop the metaverse and generates revenue from sales of consumer hardware products, software and content.

We invest in our business based on our company priorities, and the majority of our investments are directed toward developing our family of apps. In 2022, 82% of our total costs and expenses were recognized in FoA and 18% were recognized in RL. Our FoA investments were $71.79 billion in 2022 and include expenses relating to headcount, data centers and technical infrastructure as part of our efforts to develop our apps and our advertising services. We are also making significant investments in our metaverse efforts, including developing virtual and augmented reality devices, software for social platforms, neural interfaces, and other foundational technologies for the metaverse. Our total RL investments were $15.88 billion in 2022 and include expenses relating to headcount and technology development across these efforts. As these are fundamentally new technologies that we expect will evolve as the metaverse ecosystem develops, many products for the metaverse may only be fully realized in the next decade. Although it is inherently difficult to predict when and how the metaverse ecosystem will develop, we expect our RL segment to continue to operate at a loss for the foreseeable future, and our ability to support our metaverse efforts is dependent on generating sufficient profits from other areas of our business. We expect this will be a complex, evolving, and long-term initiative. We are investing now because we believe this is the next chapter of the internet and will unlock monetization opportunities for businesses, developers, and creators, including around advertising, hardware, and digital goods.

Many of our metaverse investments are directed toward long-term, cutting edge research and development for products that are not on the market today and may only be fully realized in the next decade. This includes exploring new technologies such as neural interfaces using electromyography, which lets people control their devices using neuromuscular signals, as well as innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and hardware to help build next-generation interfaces. In the near term, we are continuing to develop early metaverse experiences through Reality Labs' augmented and virtual reality products that help people feel connected, anytime, anywhere. Our current product offerings include Meta Quest virtual reality devices, as well as software and content available through the Meta Quest Store, which enable a range of social experiences that allow people to defy physical distance, including gaming, fitness, entertainment, and more. For example, we have launched Horizon Worlds, a social platform where people can interact with friends, meet new people, play games, and attend virtual events, and Horizon Workrooms, a virtual reality space for teams to connect and collaborate at work. As part of our virtual reality initiatives, we have also introduced mixed reality capabilities through our Meta Reality system on Meta Quest Pro, which allows users to experience the immersion and presence of virtual reality while still being grounded in the physical world. As part of our augmented reality initiatives, we have introduced Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses, which let people stay more present through hands-free interaction, and Meta Spark, a platform that allows creators and businesses to build augmented reality experiences that bring the digital and physical worlds together in our apps. In general, while all of these investments are part of our long-term initiative to help build the metaverse, our virtual reality and social platform efforts also include notable shorter-term projects developing specific products and services to go to market, whereas our augmented reality efforts are primarily directed toward longer-term research and development projects. For example, in 2023, we expect to spend approximately 50% of our Reality Labs operating expenses on our augmented reality initiatives, approximately 40% on our virtual reality initiatives, and approximately 10% on social platforms and other initiatives. We apply significant judgment in estimating this expense breakdown as there are certain shared costs across product lines, and our expectations are subject to change, including as the metaverse ecosystem and our business strategies evolve. In particular, we regularly evaluate our product roadmaps and make significant changes as our understanding of the technological challenges and market landscape and our product ideas and designs evolve.

Our business is characterized by innovation, rapid change, and disruptive technologies. We compete with companies providing connection, sharing, discovery, and communication products and services to users online, as well as companies that sell advertising to businesses looking to reach consumers and/or develop tools and systems for managing and optimizing advertising campaigns. We face significant competition in every aspect of our business, including, but not limited to, companies that facilitate the ability of users to create, share, communicate, and discover content and information online or enable marketers to reach their existing or prospective audiences. We compete to attract, engage, and retain people who use our products, to attract and retain businesses that use our free or paid business and advertising services, and to attract and retain developers who build compelling applications that integrate with our products. We also compete with companies that develop and deliver consumer hardware and virtual and augmented reality products and services. As we introduce or acquire new products, as our existing products evolve, or as other companies introduce new products and services, including as part of efforts to develop the metaverse or innovate through the application of new technologies such as AI, we may become subject to additional competition.

Our product development philosophy centers on continuous innovation in creating and improving products that are social by design, which means that our products are designed to place people and their social interactions at the core of the product experience. As our user base grows, as engagement with products like video and virtual reality increases, and as we deepen our investment in new technologies, our computing needs continue to expand. We make significant investments in technology both to improve our existing products and services and to develop new ones, as well as for our marketers and developers. We are also investing in protecting the security, privacy, and integrity of our platform by investing in both people and technology to strengthen our systems against abuse. Across all of these efforts, we are making significant investments in AI and machine learning, including to recommend relevant unconnected content across our products through our AI-powered discovery engine, to enhance our advertising tools and improve our ad delivery, targeting, and measurement capabilities, and

The majority of our marketers use our self-service ad platform to launch and manage their advertising campaigns. We also have a global sales force that is focused on attracting and retaining advertisers and providing support to them throughout the stages of the marketing cycle from pre-purchase decision-making to real-time optimizations to post-campaign analytics. We work directly with these advertisers, as well as through advertising agencies and resellers. We operate offices in more than 90 cities around the globe, the majority of which have a sales presence. We also invest in and rely on self-service tools to provide direct customer support to our users and partners.

Historically, our communities have generally grown organically with people inviting their friends to connect with them, supported by internal efforts to stimulate awareness and interest. In addition, we have invested and will continue to invest in marketing our products and services to grow our brand and help build community around the world.

To establish and protect our proprietary rights, we rely on a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, including know-how, license agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements with third parties, employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements, and other contractual rights. In addition, to further protect our proprietary rights, from time to time we have purchased patents and patent applications from third parties. We do not believe that our proprietary technology is dependent on any single patent or copyright or groups of related patents or copyrights. We believe the duration of our patents is adequate relative to the expected lives of our products.

We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and abroad that involve matters central to our business, many of which are still evolving and being tested in courts, and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our business. These laws and regulations involve matters including privacy, data use, data protection and personal information, biometrics, encryption, rights of publicity, content, integrity, intellectual property, advertising, marketing, distribution, data security, data retention and deletion, data localization and storage, data disclosure, artificial intelligence and machine learning, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, civil rights, accessibility, telecommunications, product liability, e-commerce, taxation, economic or other trade controls including sanctions, anti-corruption and political law compliance, securities law compliance, and online payment services. Foreign data protection, privacy, content, competition, consumer protection, and other laws and regulations can impose different obligations, or penalties or fines for non-compliance, or be more restrictive than those in the United States.

These U.S. federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations, which in some cases can be enforced by private parties in addition to government entities, are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change. As a result, the application, interpretation, and enforcement of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate, and may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and inconsistently with our current policies and practices. For example, regulatory or legislative actions or litigation affecting the manner in which we display content to our users, moderate content, or obtain consent to various practices, or otherwise relating to content that is made available on our products, could adversely affect our financial results. In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review a matter in which the scope of the protections available to online platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Section 230) is at issue. In addition, there have been, and continue to be, various efforts to remove or restrict the scope of the protections available to online platforms under Section 230, and any such changes may increase our costs or require significant changes to our products, business practices, or operations, which could adversely affect our business and financial results.

We are also subject to evolving laws and regulations that dictate whether, how, and under what circumstances we can transfer, process and/or receive certain data that is critical to our operations, including data shared between countries or regions in which we operate and data shared among our products and services. If we are unable to transfer data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, or if we are restricted from sharing data among our products and services,

We have been subject to other significant legislative and regulatory developments in the past, and proposed or new legislation and regulations could significantly affect our business in the future. For example, we have implemented a number of product changes and controls as a result of requirements under the GDPR, and may implement additional changes in the future. The GDPR also requires submission of personal data breach notifications to our lead European Union privacy regulator, the IDPC, and includes significant penalties for non-compliance with the notification obligation as well as other requirements of the regulation. The interpretation of the GDPR is still evolving and draft decisions in investigations by the IDPC are subject to review by other European privacy regulators as part of the GDPR's consistency mechanism, which may lead to significant changes in the final outcome of such investigations. As a result, the interpretation and enforcement of the GDPR, as well as the imposition and amount of penalties for non-compliance, are subject to significant uncertainty. In addition, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and other countries have enacted similar data protection regulations imposing data privacy-related requirements on products and services offered to users in their respective jurisdictions. The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, and similar laws recently enacted by other states also establish certain transparency rules and create certain data privacy rights for users. In addition, the European Union's ePrivacy Directive and national implementation laws impose additional limitations on the use of data across messaging products and include significant penalties for non-compliance. Changes to our products or business practices as a result of these or similar developments have in the past adversely affected, and may in the future adversely affect, our advertising business. Similarly, there are a number of legislative proposals or recently enacted laws in the European Union, the United States, at both the federal and state level, as well as other jurisdictions that could impose new obligations or limitations in areas affecting our business. For example, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union imposes new restrictions and requirements on companies like ours, including in areas such as the combination of data across services, mergers and acquisitions, and product design. The DMA also includes significant penalties for non-compliance, and its key requirements will be enforceable against designated gatekeeper companies in early 2024. We expect the DMA will cause us to incur significant compliance costs and make additional changes to our products or business practices. The requirements under the DMA will likely be subject to further interpretation and regulatory engagement. Pending or future proposals to modify competition laws in the United States and other jurisdictions could have similar effects. Further, the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the European Union, which will apply to our business as early as June 2023, will impose new restrictions and requirements for our products and services and may significantly increase our compliance costs. The DSA also includes significant penalties for non-compliance. In addition, some countries, such as India and Turkey, are considering or have passed legislation implementing data protection requirements or requiring local storage and processing of data or similar requirements that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services, cause us to cease the offering of our products and services in certain countries, or result in fines or other penalties. New legislation or regulatory decisions that restrict our ability to collect and use information about minors may also result in limitations on our advertising services or our ability to offer products and services to minors in certain jurisdictions.

We are, and expect to continue to be, the subject of investigations, inquiries, data requests, requests for information, actions, and audits by government authorities and regulators in the United States, Europe, and around the world, particularly in the areas of privacy and data protection, including with respect to minors, law enforcement, consumer protection, civil

For additional information about government regulation applicable to our business, see Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

At Meta, our mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People are at the heart of every connection we empower, and we are proud of our unique company culture. We strive to build diverse teams across engineering, product design, marketing, and other areas to further our mission.

As we look forward, we expect the lasting effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic will change how we work and who we reach. We are proud of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic both internally and externally. Employee benefits were robust and established quickly: we implemented 15 days of subsidized backup care for child, adult, or eldercare; we paid emergency leave to help address short-term or transitional needs; and we established a temporary stipend to help employees work from home, to name just a few of the benefits.

We are committed to fostering an enriching environment for our global workforce, and we are focused on supporting our people in doing the best work of their careers, no matter where they are located. For example:

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of online commerce led to accelerated revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. Instead, not only did online commerce return to prior trends, but the more challenging macroeconomic environment and limitations on our ad targeting and measurement tools, among other factors, contributed to a decline in our revenue.

To address this new environment, we took a number of steps to become a more capital efficient company and, in November 2022, made one of the most difficult changes in Meta's history and announced a layoff of approximately 11,000 employees. The cost reduction efforts that we announced, including our plans to scale back budgets, reduce company perks, shrink our real estate footprint, and restructure teams to increase efficiency alone would not bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth and we had to implement the layoff. We made it a priority to treat outgoing employees with respect and announced a package for U.S. employees that included:

We offered similar support for outgoing employees outside of the United States, taking into account local employment laws.

We value our investment in growing and keeping a highly skilled and efficient workforce. In addition to permitting employees to seek education reimbursement, we offer career development opportunities and work experience programs that extend beyond the physical and virtual classroom. To do this, we utilize various learning modalities, such as live virtual and in-person learning experiences, on-demand e-learning, self-service resources, learning communities, and coaching engagements.

Each year, we conduct company-wide employee surveys to help understand how employees feel about working at Meta and what we can do to improve their experience. Our surveys help us measure company, manager, and personal experience over time. Further, our more frequent surveys, such as those that have been administered daily to an ongoing random sample of employees, allows us to measure real-time sentiment around emerging events and company changes. These surveys are designed to invite feedback and actionable suggestions, inform decisions, and drive change across the company.

Meta's health and well-being programs are designed to give employees a choice of flexible benefits to help them reach their personal well-being goals. Our programs are tailored to help boost employee physical and mental health, create financial peace of mind, provide support for families, and help employees build a strong community. Programs are designed and funded to support needs like autism care, cancer care, transgender services, holistic well-being, and mental health programs, which represent a few of the ways we support our employees and their dependents.

We work to build a diverse and inclusive workplace where we can leverage our collective cognitive diversity to build the best products and make the best decisions for the global community we serve.

We offer full-time fully remote positions, including in locations where we do not have offices, which has deepened the diversity of our candidate pool. As published in our Diversity Report in July 2022, we saw that providing remote optionality increased the diversity of the overall composition of our workforce: U.S candidates who accepted remote job offers were substantially more likely to be Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaskan Native, Pacific Islander, veterans and/or people with disabilities, and globally, candidates who accepted remote job offers were more likely to be women.

As part of our 2022 Diversity Report, we published our global gender diversity and U.S. ethnic diversity workforce data. As of June 30, 2022, our global employee base was comprised of 37.1% females and 62.9% males, and our U.S. employee base was comprised of the following ethnicities: 46.5% Asian, 37.6% White, 6.7% Hispanic, 4.9% Black, 4.0% two or more ethnicities, and 0.3% additional groups (including American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander).

We want our products to work for the world and we need to grow and keep the best talent in order to do that. To aid in this effort, we have taken steps to reduce bias from our hiring processes and performance management systems.

We have also invested in learning opportunities to identify and reduce inherent bias through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion trainings for our employees and enhanced learning and development courses. In addition, we offer career development programs to employees, including opportunities for women leaders at Meta to connect, support and grow together and programs to help ensure that we develop leaders of color, build a more diverse leadership pipeline and foster a culture of sponsorship through leader advocacy.

We offer competitive compensation to attract and retain the best people, and we help care for our people so they can focus on our mission. Our employees' total compensation package includes market-competitive salary, bonuses or sales incentives, and equity. We generally offer full-time employees equity at the time of hire and through annual equity grants because we want them to be owners of the company and committed to our long-term success. We have conducted pay equity analyses for many years, and continue to be committed to pay equity. In 2022, we announced that our analyses indicate that we continue to have pay equity across genders globally and race in the United States for people in similar jobs, accounting for factors such as location, role, and level.

Through Life@ Meta, our holistic approach to benefits, we provide our employees and their dependents with resources to help them thrive. We offer a wide range of benefits across areas such as health, family, finance, community, and time away, including healthcare and wellness benefits, family building benefits, family care resources, retirement savings plans, access to tax and legal services, and Meta Resource Groups to build community at Meta.

We were incorporated in Delaware in July 2004. We completed our initial public offering in May 2012 and our Class A common stock is currently listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "META." Our principal executive offices are located at 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, and our telephone number is (650) 543-4800.

Meta, the Meta logo, Facebook, FB, Instagram, Oculus, WhatsApp, and our other registered or common law trademarks, service marks, or trade names appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of Meta Platforms, Inc. or its affiliates. Other trademarks, service marks, or trade names appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10‑K are the property of their respective owners.

Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We are subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act and file or furnish reports, proxy statements, and other information with the SEC. Such reports and other information filed by us with the SEC are available free of charge on our website at investor.fb.com when such reports are available on the SEC's website. We use our investor.fb.com and about.fb.com/news/ websites as well as Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/zuck) and Instagram account (www.instagram.com/zuck) as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov.

The contents of the websites referred to above are not incorporated into this filing. Further, our references to the URLs for these websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.

Our business is subject to a number of risks, including risks that may prevent us from achieving our business objectives or may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and prospects. These risks are discussed more fully below and include, but are not limited to, risks related to:

The size of our user base and our users' level of engagement across our products are critical to our success. Our financial performance has been and will continue to be significantly determined by our success in adding, retaining, and engaging active users of our products that deliver ad impressions, particularly for Facebook and Instagram. We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, fluctuations and declines in the size of our active user base in one or more markets from time to time, particularly in markets where we have achieved higher penetration rates. User growth and engagement are also impacted by a number of other factors, including competitive products and services, such as TikTok, that have reduced some users' engagement with our products and services, as well as global and regional business, macroeconomic, and geopolitical conditions. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increases and decreases in the size and engagement of our active user base from period to period at different points during the pandemic, and may continue to have a varied impact on the size and engagement of our active user base in the future. In addition, in connection with the war in Ukraine, access to Facebook and Instagram was restricted in Russia and these services were then prohibited by the Russian government, which contributed to slight declines on a quarter-over-quarter basis in the number of DAUs and MAUs on Facebook in Europe in the first quarter and the second quarter of 2022, as well as a slight decline on a quarter-over-quarter basis in the total number of MAUs on Facebook in the second quarter of 2022. Any future declines in the size of our active user base may adversely impact our ability to deliver ad impressions and, in turn, our financial performance.

If people do not perceive our products to be useful, reliable, and trustworthy, we may not be able to attract or retain users or otherwise maintain or increase the frequency and duration of their engagement. A number of other social networking companies that achieved early popularity have since seen their active user bases or levels of engagement decline, in some cases precipitously. There is no guarantee that we will not experience a similar erosion of our active user base or engagement levels. Our user engagement patterns have changed over time, and user engagement can be difficult to measure, particularly as we introduce new and different products and services. Any number of factors can negatively affect user retention, growth, and engagement, including if:

From time to time, certain of these factors have negatively affected user retention, growth, and engagement to varying degrees. If we are unable to maintain or increase our user base and user engagement, particularly for our significant revenue-generating products like Facebook and Instagram, our revenue and financial results may be adversely affected. Any significant decrease in user retention, growth, or engagement could render our products less attractive to users, marketers, and developers, which is likely to have a material and adverse impact on our ability to deliver ad impressions and, accordingly, our revenue, business, financial condition, and results of operations. As the size of our active user base fluctuates in one or more markets from time to time, we will become increasingly dependent on our ability to maintain or increase levels of user engagement and monetization in order to grow revenue.

Substantially all of our revenue is currently generated from marketers advertising on Facebook and Instagram. As is common in the industry, our marketers do not have long-term advertising commitments with us. Many of our marketers spend only a relatively small portion of their overall advertising budget with us. Marketers will not continue to do business with us, or they will reduce the budgets they are willing to commit to us, if we do not deliver ads in an effective manner, if they do not believe that their investment in advertising with us will generate a competitive return relative to other alternatives, or if they are not satisfied for any other reason. We have implemented, and we will continue to implement, changes to our user data practices. Some of these changes reduce our ability to effectively target ads, which has to some extent adversely affected, and will continue to adversely affect, our advertising business. If we are unable to provide marketers with a suitable return on investment, the demand for our ads may not increase, or may decline, in which case our revenue and financial results may be harmed.

Our advertising revenue can also be adversely affected by a number of other factors, including:

From time to time, certain of these factors have adversely affected our advertising revenue to varying degrees. The occurrence of any of these or other factors in the future could result in a reduction in demand for our ads, which may reduce the prices we receive for our ads, or cause marketers to stop advertising with us altogether, either of which would negatively affect our revenue and financial results.

Our ad targeting and measurement tools rely on data signals from user activity on websites and services that we do not control, as well as signals generated within our products, in order to deliver relevant and effective ads to our users, and any changes in our ability to use such signals will adversely affect our business. For example, legislative and regulatory developments, such as the GDPR, ePrivacy Directive, and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the CPRA, have impacted, and we expect will continue to impact, our ability to use such signals in our ad products. In particular, we have seen increases in the number of users opting to control certain types of ad targeting in Europe following product changes implemented in connection with our GDPR and ePrivacy Directive compliance, and we have introduced product changes that limit data signal use for certain users in California following adoption of the CCPA. Regulatory guidance, decisions, or new legislation in these or other jurisdictions, such as the DMA, may require us to make additional changes to our products in the future that further reduce our ability to use these signals, which has occurred in the past. For example, we expect to implement additional changes in response to the December 2022 decision by the IDPC regarding the legal basis for our delivery of behavioral advertising in Europe.

In addition, mobile operating system and browser providers, such as Apple and Google, have implemented product changes and/or announced future plans to limit the ability of websites and application developers to collect and use these signals to target and measure advertising. For example, in 2021, Apple made certain changes to its products and data use policies in connection with changes to its iOS operating system that reduce our and other iOS developers' ability to target and measure advertising, which has negatively impacted, and we expect will continue to negatively impact, the size of the budgets marketers are willing to commit to us and other advertising platforms. In addition, we have implemented, and may continue to implement, product changes that give users the ability to limit our use of such data signals to improve ads and other experiences on our products and services, including changes implemented in connection with the GDPR and other regulatory frameworks.

These developments have limited our ability to target and measure the effectiveness of ads on our platform and negatively impacted our advertising revenue. For example, our advertising revenue has been negatively impacted by marketer reaction to targeting and measurement challenges associated with iOS changes beginning in 2021. If we are unable to mitigate these developments as they take further effect in the future, our targeting and measurement capabilities will be materially and adversely affected, which would in turn significantly impact our advertising revenue.

The substantial majority of our revenue is generated from advertising on mobile devices. There is no guarantee that popular mobile devices will continue to feature our products, or that mobile device users will continue to use our products rather than competing products. We are dependent on the interoperability of our products with popular mobile operating systems, networks, technologies, products, and standards that we do not control, such as the Android and iOS operating systems and mobile browsers. Changes, bugs, or technical issues in such systems, or changes in our relationships with mobile operating system partners, handset manufacturers, browser developers, or mobile carriers, or in the content or application of their terms of service or policies (which they have made in the past and continue to seek to implement) that degrade our products' functionality, reduce or eliminate our ability to update or distribute our products, give preferential treatment to competitive products, limit our ability to deliver, target, or measure the effectiveness of ads, or charge fees related to the distribution of our products or our delivery of ads have in the past adversely affected, and could in the future adversely affect,

Our ability to retain, increase, and engage our user base and to increase our revenue depends heavily on our ability to continue to evolve our existing products and to create successful new products, both independently and in conjunction with developers or other third parties. We may introduce significant changes to our existing products or acquire or introduce new and unproven products, including using technologies with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. For example, we do not have significant experience with consumer hardware products or virtual or augmented reality technology, which may adversely affect our ability to successfully develop and market these products and technologies. We continue to incur substantial costs, and we may not be successful in generating profits, in connection with these efforts. We are also making significant investments in artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, including to recommend relevant unconnected content across our products, enhance our advertising tools, and develop new product features using generative AI. These efforts, including the introduction of new products or changes to existing products, may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, ethical concerns, or other complications that could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results. We have also invested, and expect to continue to invest, significant resources in growing our messaging products to support increasing usage of such products. We have historically monetized messaging in only a limited fashion, and we may not be successful in our efforts to generate meaningful revenue or profits from messaging over the long term. In addition, we are moving forward with plans to implement end-to-end encryption across our messaging services, as well as facilitate cross-app communication between these platforms, which are subject to governmental and regulatory scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions. If our new products or changes to existing products fail to engage users, marketers, or developers, or if our business plans are unsuccessful, we may fail to attract or retain users or to generate sufficient revenue, operating margin, or other value to justify our investments, and our business may be adversely affected.

We frequently make product and investment decisions that may not prioritize short-term financial results if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and benefit the aggregate user experience and will thereby improve our financial performance over the long term. For example, we have implemented, and we will continue to implement, changes to our user data practices. Some of these changes reduce our ability to effectively target ads, which has to some extent adversely affected, and will continue to adversely affect, our advertising business. For example, our Off-Facebook Activity tool enables users to place limits on our storage and use of information about their interactions with advertisers' apps and websites, which reduces our ability to deliver the most relevant and effective ads to our users. Similarly, from time to time we update our feed display and ranking algorithms or other product features to optimize the user experience, and these changes have had, and

We believe that our brands have significantly contributed to the success of our business. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing our brands is critical to expanding our base of users, marketers, and developers. Many of our new users are referred by existing users. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, reliable, trustworthy, and innovative products, which we may not do successfully. We may introduce new products or terms of service or policies that users do not like, which may negatively affect our brands. Additionally, the actions of our developers or advertisers may affect our brands if users do not have a positive experience using third-party applications integrated with our products or interacting with parties that advertise through our products. We will also continue to experience media, legislative, or regulatory scrutiny of our actions or decisions regarding user privacy, data use, encryption, content, product design, algorithms, advertising, competition, and other issues, including actions or decisions in connection with elections, the COVID-19 pandemic, or geopolitical events, which has in the past adversely affected, and may in the future adversely affect, our reputation and brands. For example, beginning in September 2021, we became the subject of media, legislative, and regulatory scrutiny as a result of a former employee's allegations and release of internal company documents relating to, among other things, our algorithms, advertising and user metrics, and content enforcement practices, as well as misinformation and other undesirable activity on our platform, and user well-being. In addition, in March 2018, we announced developments regarding the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in

We have made and are continuing to make investments to enable developers to build, grow, and monetize applications that integrate with our products. Such existing and prospective developers may not be successful in building, growing, or monetizing applications that create and maintain user engagement. Additionally, developers may choose to build on other platforms, including platforms controlled by third parties, rather than building products that integrate with our products. We are continuously seeking to balance the distribution objectives of our developers with our desire to provide an optimal user experience, and we may not be successful in achieving a balance that continues to attract and retain such developers. For example, from time to time, we have taken actions to reduce the volume of communications from these developers to users on our products with the objective of enhancing the user experience, and such actions have reduced distribution from, user engagement with, and our monetization opportunities from, applications integrated with our products. In addition, as part of our efforts related to privacy, safety, and security, we conduct investigations and audits of platform applications from time to time, and we also have announced several product changes that restrict developer access to certain user data. In some instances, these actions, as well as other actions to enforce our policies applicable to developers, have adversely affected, or will adversely affect, our relationships with developers. If we are not successful in our efforts to maintain or grow the number of developers that choose to build products that integrate with our products or if we are unable to continue to build and maintain good relations with such developers, our user growth and user engagement and our financial results may be adversely affected.

We compete with companies providing connection, sharing, discovery, and communication products and services to users online, as well as companies that sell advertising to businesses looking to reach consumers and/or develop tools and systems for managing and optimizing advertising campaigns. We face significant competition in every aspect of our business, including, but not limited to, companies that facilitate the ability of users to create, share, communicate, and discover content and information online or enable marketers to reach their existing or prospective audiences. We compete to attract, engage, and retain people who use our products, to attract and retain businesses that use our free or paid business and advertising services, and to attract and retain developers who build compelling applications that integrate with our products. We also compete with companies that develop and deliver consumer hardware and virtual and augmented reality products and services. As we introduce or acquire new products, as our existing products evolve, or as other companies introduce new products and services, including as part of efforts to develop the metaverse or innovate through the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, we may become subject to additional competition.

Some of our current and potential competitors may have greater resources, experience, or stronger competitive positions in certain product segments, geographic regions, or user demographics than we do. For example, some of our competitors may be domiciled in different countries and subject to political, legal, and regulatory regimes that enable them to compete more effectively than us. These factors may allow our competitors to respond more effectively than us to new or emerging technologies and changes in market conditions. We believe that some users, particularly younger users, are aware of and actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, our products and services, and we believe that some users have reduced their use of and engagement with our products and services in favor of these other products and services. In the event that users increasingly engage with other products and services, we may experience a decline in use and engagement in key user demographics or more broadly, in which case our business would likely be harmed.

Our competitors may develop products, features, or services that are similar to ours or that achieve greater acceptance, may undertake more far-reaching and successful product development efforts or marketing campaigns, or may adopt more aggressive pricing policies. Some competitors may gain a competitive advantage against us in areas where we operate, including: by making acquisitions; by limiting our ability to deliver, target, or measure the effectiveness of ads; by imposing fees or other charges related to our delivery of ads; by making access to our products more difficult or impossible; by making it more difficult to communicate with our users; or by integrating competing platforms, applications, or features into products they control such as mobile device operating systems, search engines, browsers, or e-commerce platforms. For example, each of Apple and Google have integrated competitive products with iOS and Android, respectively. In addition, Apple has released changes to iOS that limit our ability, and the ability of others in the digital advertising industry, to target and measure ads effectively. As a result, our competitors may, and in some cases will, acquire and engage users or generate advertising or other revenue at the expense of our own efforts, which would negatively affect our business and financial results. In addition, from time to time, we may take actions in response to competitive threats, but we cannot assure you that these actions will be successful or that they will not negatively affect our business and financial results.

We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends upon many factors both within and beyond our control, including:

If we are not able to compete effectively, our user base, level of user engagement, and ability to deliver ad impressions may decrease, we may become less attractive to developers and marketers, and our revenue and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Our quarterly financial results have fluctuated in the past and will fluctuate in the future. Additionally, we have a limited operating history with the current scale of our business, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results. As a result, you should not rely upon our past quarterly financial results as indicators of future performance. You should take into account the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in rapidly evolving markets. Our financial results in any given quarter can be influenced by numerous factors, many of which we are unable to predict or are outside of our control, including:

We receive a high degree of media coverage around the world. Unfavorable publicity regarding, for example, our privacy practices, advertising policies, product decisions, product quality, litigation or regulatory activity, government surveillance, the actions of our advertisers, the actions of our developers whose products are integrated with our products, the use of our products or services for illicit or objectionable ends, the substance or enforcement of our community standards, terms of service, or other policies, the actions of our users, the quality and integrity of content shared on our platform, the perceived or actual impacts of our products or services on user well-being, or the actions of other companies that provide similar services to ours, has in the past, and could in the future, adversely affect our reputation. For example, we have been the subject of significant media coverage involving concerns around our handling of political speech and advertising, hate speech, and other content, as well as user well-being issues, and we continue to receive negative publicity related to these topics. Beginning in September 2021, we became the subject of significant media coverage as a result of allegations and the release of internal company documents by a former employee. In addition, we have been, and may in the future be, subject to negative publicity in connection with our handling of misinformation and other illicit or objectionable use of our products or services, including in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical events, and elections in the United States and around the world. Any such negative publicity could have an adverse effect on the size, engagement, and loyalty of our user base and marketer demand for advertising on our products, which could result in decreased revenue and adversely affect our business and financial results, and we have experienced such adverse effects to varying degrees from time to time.

We are subject to public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has previously significantly impacted, and may in the future impact, our business and results of operations. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in authorities implementing numerous preventative measures from time to time to contain or mitigate the outbreak of the virus, such as travel bans and restrictions, limitations on business activity, quarantines, and shelter-in-place orders, which have previously caused, and may in the future cause, business slowdowns or shutdowns in certain affected countries and regions. These developments led to volatility in the demand for and pricing of our advertising services at various points throughout the pandemic, and we may experience similar effects in the future. In addition to the impact on our advertising business, the pandemic exposes our business, operations, and workforce to a variety of other risks, including:

Any of these developments may adversely affect our business, harm our reputation, or result in legal or regulatory actions against us.

Operating our business is costly, and we expect our expenses to continue to increase in the future as we broaden our user base, as users increase the amount and types of content they consume and the data they share with us, for example with respect to video, as we develop and implement new products, as we market new and existing products and promote our brands, as we continue to expand our technical infrastructure, as we continue to invest in new and unproven technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, and as we continue our efforts to focus on privacy, safety, security, and content review. We have recently undertaken cost reduction measures in light of a more challenging operating environment, which may adversely affect these or other business initiatives, and some of these measures have involved, and may in the future involve, up-front charges and outlays of cash to reduce certain longer-term expenses. In addition, from time to time we are subject to settlements, judgments, fines, or other monetary penalties in connection with legal and regulatory developments that may be material to our business. We are also continuing to increase our investments in new platforms and technologies, including as part of our efforts related to building the metaverse. Some of these investments, particularly our significant investments in virtual and augmented reality, have generated only limited revenue and reduced our operating margin and profitability, and we expect the adverse financial impact of such investments to continue for the foreseeable future. For example, our investments in Reality Labs reduced our 2022 overall operating profit by approximately $13.72 billion, and we expect our investments to increase in the future. If our investments are not successful longer-term, our business and financial performance will be harmed.

As part of our business strategy, we have made and intend to continue to make acquisitions to add specialized employees and complementary companies, products, or technologies, and from time to time may enter into other strategic transactions such as investments and joint ventures. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates, and we may not be able to complete acquisitions or other strategic transactions on favorable terms, or at all, including as a result of regulatory challenges. For example, in 2022, the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority directed us to divest our Giphy acquisition. In addition, in 2022, the FTC filed lawsuits against us to enjoin our proposed acquisition of Within Unlimited. In some cases, the costs of such acquisitions or other strategic transactions may be substantial, and there is no assurance that we will realize expected synergies and potential monetization opportunities for our acquisitions or a favorable return on investment for our strategic investments.

We may pay substantial amounts of cash or incur debt to pay for acquisitions or other strategic transactions, which has occurred in the past and could adversely affect our liquidity. The incurrence of indebtedness also results in increased fixed obligations and increased interest expense, and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations. We may also issue equity securities to pay for acquisitions and we regularly grant RSUs to retain the employees of acquired companies, which could increase our expenses, adversely affect our financial results, and result in dilution to our stockholders. In addition, any acquisitions or other strategic transactions we announce could be viewed negatively by users, marketers, developers, or investors, which may adversely affect our business or the price of our Class A common stock.

We may also discover liabilities, deficiencies, or other claims associated with the companies or assets we acquire that were not identified in advance, which may result in significant unanticipated costs. The effectiveness of our due diligence review and our ability to evaluate the results of such due diligence are dependent upon the accuracy and completeness of statements and disclosures made or actions taken by the companies we acquire or their representatives, as well as the limited amount of time in which acquisitions are executed. In addition, we may fail to accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition or other strategic transaction, including tax and accounting charges. Acquisitions or other strategic transactions

The integration of acquisitions requires significant time and resources, particularly with respect to companies that have significant operations or that develop products where we do not have prior experience, and we may not manage these processes successfully. We continue to make substantial investments of resources to support our acquisitions, which has in the past resulted, and we expect will in the future result, in significant ongoing operating expenses and the diversion of resources and management attention from other areas of our business. We cannot assure you that these investments will be successful. If we fail to successfully integrate the companies we acquire, we may not realize the benefits expected from the transaction and our business may be harmed.

Our reputation and ability to attract, retain, and serve our users is dependent upon the reliable performance of our products and our underlying technical infrastructure. We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, interruptions in the availability or performance of our products from time to time. Our systems may not be adequately designed or may not operate with the reliability and redundancy necessary to avoid performance delays or outages that could be harmful to our business. If our products are unavailable when users attempt to access them, or if they do not load as quickly as expected, users may not use our products as often in the future, or at all, and our ability to serve ads may be disrupted, any of which could adversely affect our business and financial performance. We have experienced such issues to varying degrees from time to time. For example, in October 2021, a combination of an error and a bug resulted in an approximately six-hour outage of our services. In addition, as the amount and types of information shared on our products continue to grow and evolve, as the usage patterns of our global community continue to evolve, and as our internal operational demands continue to grow, we will need an increasing amount of technical infrastructure, including network capacity and computing power, to continue to satisfy our needs. It is possible that we may fail to continue to effectively scale and grow our technical infrastructure to accommodate these increased demands, which may adversely affect our user engagement and advertising revenue. In addition, our business may be subject to interruptions, delays, or failures resulting from earthquakes, adverse weather conditions, other natural disasters, power loss, terrorism, geopolitical conflict, other physical security threats, cyber-attacks, or other catastrophic events. Global climate change could result in certain types of natural disasters occurring more frequently or with more intense effects. Any such events may result in users being subject to service disruptions or outages and we may not be able to recover our technical infrastructure and user data in a timely manner to restart or provide our services, which may adversely affect our financial results. We also have been, and may in the future be, subject to increased energy and/or other costs to maintain the availability or performance of our products in connection with any such events.

A substantial portion of our network infrastructure is provided by third parties. Any disruption or failure in the services we receive from these providers could harm our ability to handle existing or increased traffic and could significantly harm our business. Any financial or other difficulties these providers face may adversely affect our business, and we exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, supply and labor shortages and other disruptions in logistics and the supply chain for our technical infrastructure. As a result, we have had to make certain changes to our procurement practices, and in the future we may not be able to procure sufficient components, equipment, or services from third parties to satisfy our needs, or we may be required to procure such components, equipment, or services on unfavorable terms.

Any of these developments may result in interruptions in the availability or performance of our products, require unfavorable changes to existing products, delay the introduction of future products, or otherwise adversely affect our business and financial results.

We have designed and built our own data centers and key portions of our technical infrastructure through which we serve our products, and we plan to continue to significantly expand the size of our infrastructure primarily through data centers, subsea and terrestrial fiber optic cable systems, and other projects. The infrastructure expansion we are undertaking is complex and involves projects in multiple locations around the world, including in emerging markets that expose us to increased risks relating to anti-corruption compliance and political challenges, among others. We have in the past suspended, and may in the future suspend, certain of these projects as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors. Additional unanticipated delays or disruptions in the completion of these projects, including due to any shortage of labor necessary in building portions of such projects, or availability of components, challenges in obtaining required government or regulatory approvals, or other geopolitical challenges or actions by governments, whether as a result of the pandemic, trade disputes, or otherwise, may lead to increased project costs, operational inefficiencies, interruptions in the delivery or degradation of the quality or reliability of our products, or impairment of assets on our balance sheet. In addition, there may be issues related to this infrastructure that are not identified during the testing phases of design and implementation, which may only become evident after we have started to fully utilize the underlying equipment, that could further degrade the user experience or increase our costs. Further, much of our technical infrastructure is located outside the United States, and action by a foreign government, or our response to such government action, has resulted in the past, and may result in the future, in the impairment of a portion of our technical infrastructure, which may interrupt the delivery or degrade the quality or reliability of our products and lead to a negative user experience or increase our costs. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results.

The numbers for our key metrics, which include our Family metrics (DAP, MAP, and average revenue per person (ARPP)) and Facebook metrics (DAUs, MAUs, and average revenue per user (ARPU)), are calculated using internal company data based on the activity of user accounts. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage of our products across large online and mobile populations around the world. The methodologies used to measure these metrics require significant judgment and are also susceptible to algorithm or other technical errors. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our estimates of our user base, and such estimates may change due to improvements or changes in our methodology. We regularly review our processes for calculating these metrics, and from time to time we discover inaccuracies in our metrics or make adjustments to improve their accuracy, which can result in adjustments to our historical metrics. Our ability to recalculate our historical metrics may be impacted by data limitations or other factors that require us to apply different methodologies for such adjustments. We generally do not intend to update previously disclosed Family metrics for any such inaccuracies or adjustments that are within the error margins disclosed below.

In addition, our Family metrics and Facebook metrics estimates will differ from estimates published by third parties due to differences in methodology.

Many people in our community have user accounts on more than one of our products, and some people have multiple user accounts within an individual product. Accordingly, for our Family metrics, we do not seek to count the total number of user accounts across our products because we believe that would not reflect the actual size of our community. Rather, our Family metrics represent our estimates of the number of unique people using at least one of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. We do not require people to use a common identifier or link their accounts to use multiple products in our Family, and therefore must seek to attribute multiple user accounts within and across products to individual people. To calculate these metrics, we rely upon complex techniques, algorithms and machine learning models that seek to count the individual people behind user accounts, including by matching multiple user accounts within an individual product and across multiple products when we believe they are attributable to a single person, and counting such group of accounts as one person. These techniques and models require significant judgment, are subject to data and other limitations discussed below, and inherently are subject to statistical variances and uncertainties. We estimate the potential error in our Family metrics primarily based on user survey data, which itself is subject to error as well. While we expect the error margin for our Family metrics to vary from period to period, we estimate that such margin generally will be approximately 3% of our worldwide MAP. At our scale, it is very difficult to attribute multiple user accounts within and across products to individual people, and it is possible that the actual numbers of unique people using our products may vary significantly from our estimates,

To calculate our estimates of Family DAP and MAP, we currently use a series of machine learning models that are developed based on internal reviews of limited samples of user accounts and calibrated against user survey data. We apply significant judgment in designing these models and calculating these estimates. For example, to match user accounts within individual products and across multiple products, we use data signals such as similar device information, IP addresses, and user names. We also calibrate our models against data from periodic user surveys of varying sizes and frequency across our products, which are inherently subject to error. The timing and results of such user surveys have in the past contributed, and may in the future contribute, to changes in our reported Family metrics from period to period. In addition, our data limitations may affect our understanding of certain details of our business and increase the risk of error for our Family metrics estimates. Our techniques and models rely on a variety of data signals from different products, and we rely on more limited data signals for some products compared to others. For example, as a result of limited visibility into encrypted products, we have fewer data signals from WhatsApp user accounts and primarily rely on phone numbers and device information to match WhatsApp user accounts with accounts on our other products. Similarly, although Messenger Kids users are included in our Family metrics, we do not seek to match their accounts with accounts on our other applications for purposes of calculating DAP and MAP. Any loss of access to data signals we use in our process for calculating Family metrics, whether as a result of our own product decisions, actions by third-party browser or mobile platforms, regulatory or legislative requirements, or other factors, also may impact the stability or accuracy of our reported Family metrics, as well as our ability to report these metrics at all. Our estimates of Family metrics also may change as our methodologies evolve, including through the application of new data signals or technologies, product changes, or other improvements in our user surveys, algorithms, or machine learning that may improve our ability to match accounts within and across our products or otherwise evaluate the broad population of our users. In addition, such evolution may allow us to identify previously undetected violating accounts (as defined below).

We regularly evaluate our Family metrics to estimate the percentage of our MAP consisting solely of "violating" accounts. We define "violating" accounts as accounts which we believe are intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, including bots and spam. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we estimated that approximately 3% of our worldwide MAP consisted solely of violating accounts. Such estimation is based on an internal review of a limited sample of accounts, and we apply significant judgment in making this determination. For example, we look for account information and behaviors associated with Facebook and Instagram accounts that appear to be inauthentic to the reviewers, but we have limited visibility into WhatsApp user activity due to encryption. In addition, if we believe an individual person has one or more violating accounts, we do not include such person in our violating accounts estimation as long as we believe they have one account that does not constitute a violating account. From time to time, we disable certain user accounts, make product changes, or take other actions to reduce the number of violating accounts among our users, which may also reduce our DAP and MAP estimates in a particular period. We intend to disclose our estimates of the percentage of our MAP consisting solely of violating accounts on an annual basis. Violating accounts are very difficult to measure at our scale, and it is possible that the actual number of violating accounts may vary significantly from our estimates.

We also regularly evaluate our Facebook metrics to estimate the number of "duplicate" and "false" accounts among our MAUs. A duplicate account is one that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account. We divide "false" accounts into two categories: (1) user-misclassified accounts, where users have created personal profiles for a business, organization, or non-human entity such as a pet (such entities are permitted on Facebook using a Page rather than a personal profile under our terms of service); and (2) violating accounts, which represent user profiles that we believe are intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as bots and spam. The estimates of duplicate and false accounts are based on an internal review of a limited sample of accounts, and we apply significant judgment in making this determination. For example, to identify duplicate accounts we use data signals such as identical IP addresses and similar user names, and to identify false accounts we look for names that appear to be fake or other behavior that appears inauthentic to the reviewers. Any loss of access to data signals we use in this process, whether as a result of our own product decisions, actions by third-party browser or mobile platforms, regulatory or legislative requirements, or other factors, also may impact the stability or accuracy of our estimates of duplicate and false accounts. Our estimates also may change as our methodologies evolve, including through the application of new data signals or technologies or product changes that may allow us to identify previously undetected duplicate or false accounts and may improve our ability to evaluate a broader population of our users. Duplicate and false accounts are very difficult to measure at our scale, and it is possible that the actual number of duplicate and false accounts may vary significantly from our estimates.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, we estimated that duplicate accounts may have represented approximately 11% of our worldwide MAUs. We believe the percentage of duplicate accounts is meaningfully higher in developing markets such as the Philippines and Vietnam, as compared to more developed markets. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we estimated that false accounts may have represented approximately 4-5% of our worldwide MAUs. Our estimation of false accounts can vary as a result of episodic spikes in the creation of such accounts, which we have seen originate more frequently in specific countries such as Indonesia, Nigeria, and Vietnam. From time to time, we disable certain user accounts, make product changes, or take other actions to reduce the number of duplicate or false accounts among our users, which may also reduce our DAU and MAU estimates in a particular period. We intend to disclose our estimates of the number of duplicate and false accounts among our MAUs on an annual basis.

Other data limitations also may affect our understanding of certain details of our business. For example, while user-provided data indicates a decline in usage among younger users, this age data may be unreliable because a disproportionate number of our younger users register with an inaccurate age. Accordingly, our understanding of usage by age group may not be complete.

In addition, our data regarding the geographic location of our users is estimated based on a number of factors, such as the user's IP address and self-disclosed location. These factors may not always accurately reflect the user's actual location. For example, a user may appear to be accessing Facebook from the location of the proxy server that the user connects to rather than from the user's actual location. The methodologies used to measure our metrics are also susceptible to algorithm or other technical errors, and our estimates for revenue by user location and revenue by user device are also affected by these factors.

In addition, from time to time we provide, or rely on, certain other metrics and estimates, including those relating to the reach and effectiveness of our ads. Many of our metrics involve the use of estimations and judgments, and our metrics and estimates are subject to software bugs, inconsistencies in our systems, and human error. Such metrics and estimates also change from time to time due to improvements or changes in our terminology or methodology, including as a result of loss of access to data signals we use in calculating such metrics and estimates. We have in the past been, and may in the future be, subject to litigation as well as marketer, regulatory, and other inquiries regarding the accuracy of such metrics and estimates. Where marketers, developers, or investors do not perceive our metrics or estimates to be accurate, or where we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics or estimates, we may be subject to liability, our reputation may be harmed, and marketers and developers may be less willing to allocate their budgets or resources to our products that deliver ad impressions, which could negatively affect our business and financial results.

Our employee headcount and the scale and complexity of our business have increased significantly over time. The scale of our business and breadth of our products create significant challenges for our management, operational, and financial resources, including managing multiple relationships with users, marketers, developers, and other third parties, and maintaining information technology systems and internal controls and procedures that support the scale and complexity of our business. In addition, some members of our management do not have significant experience managing a large global business operation, so our management may not be able to manage our scale effectively. To effectively manage our scale, we must maintain, and continue to adapt, our operational, financial, and management processes and systems, manage our headcount and facilities, and effectively train and manage our personnel. Many of our personnel work remotely, which may lead to challenges in productivity and collaboration. In addition, from time to time, we implement organizational changes to pursue greater efficiency and realign our business and strategic priorities. For example, in 2022, we announced a layoff of approximately 11,000 employees and initiated several measures to scale down our office facilities. As our organization continues to evolve, and we are required to implement and adapt complex organizational management structures, we may find it difficult to maintain the benefits of our corporate culture, including our ability to quickly develop and launch new and innovative products. This could negatively affect our business performance.

We have significant international operations and plan to continue the international expansion of our business operations and the translation of our products. We currently make Facebook available in more than 100 different languages,

In addition, we must manage the potential conflicts between locally accepted business practices in any given jurisdiction and our obligations to comply with laws and regulations, including anti-corruption laws or regulations applicable to us, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010. We also must manage our obligations to comply with laws and regulations related to import and export controls, trade restrictions, and sanctions, including regulations established by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. Government agencies and authorities have a broad range of civil and criminal penalties they may seek to impose against companies for violations of anti-corruption laws or regulations, import and export controls, trade restrictions, sanctions, and other laws, rules, and regulations.

If we are unable to expand internationally and manage the complexity of our global operations successfully, our financial results could be adversely affected. We also may be required to or elect to cease or modify our operations or the offering of our products and services in certain regions, including as a result of the risks described above, which could adversely affect our business, user growth and engagement, and financial results.

We face a number of risks related to design, manufacturing, and supply chain management with respect to our consumer hardware products. For example, the consumer hardware products we sell from time to time have had, and in the future may have, quality issues resulting from the design or manufacture of the products, or from the software used in the products. Sometimes, these issues may be caused by components we purchase from other manufacturers or suppliers. Our brand and financial results could be adversely affected by any such quality issues, other failures to meet our customers' expectations, or findings of our consumer hardware products to be defective.

We rely on third parties to manufacture and manage the logistics of transporting and distributing our consumer hardware products, which subjects us to a number of risks that have been exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, supply or labor shortages or other disruptions in logistics and the supply chain, which could result in shipping delays and negatively impact our operations, product development, and sales. We could be negatively affected if we are not able to engage third parties with the necessary capabilities or capacity on reasonable terms, or if those we engage with fail to meet their obligations (whether due to financial difficulties, manufacturing or supply constraints, or other reasons), or make adverse changes in the pricing or other material terms of such arrangements with them. The manufacturing, distribution, and sale of our consumer hardware products also may be negatively impacted by macroeconomic conditions, geopolitical challenges, trade disputes, or other actions by governments that subject us to supply shortages, increased costs, or supply chain or logistics disruptions.

We also require the suppliers and business partners of our consumer hardware products to comply with laws and certain company policies regarding sourcing practices and standards on labor, trade compliance, health and safety, the environment, and business ethics, but we do not control them or their practices and standards. If any of them violates laws, fails to implement changes in accordance with newly enacted laws, or implements practices or standards regarded as unethical, corrupt, or non-compliant, we could experience supply chain disruptions, government action or fines, canceled orders, or damage to our reputation.

We are exposed to inventory risks with respect to our consumer hardware products as a result of rapid changes in product cycles and pricing, unsafe or defective merchandise, supply chain disruptions, changes in consumer demand and consumer spending patterns, changes in consumer tastes with respect to our consumer hardware products, and other factors. The demand for our products can also change significantly between the time inventory or components are ordered and the date of sale. While we endeavor to accurately predict these trends and avoid overstocking or understocking consumer hardware products we may sell, from time to time we have experienced difficulties in accurately predicting and meeting the consumer demand for our products. In addition, when we begin selling or manufacturing a new consumer hardware product or enter new international markets, it may be difficult to establish vendor relationships, determine appropriate product or component selection, and accurately forecast demand. The acquisition of certain types of inventory or components may require significant lead-time and prepayment and they may not be returnable. Any one of the foregoing factors may adversely affect our operating results.

We are involved in numerous lawsuits, including stockholder derivative lawsuits and putative class action lawsuits, many of which claim statutory damages and/or seek significant changes to our business operations, and we anticipate that we will continue to be a target for numerous lawsuits in the future. Because of the scale of our user, advertiser, and developer base, the plaintiffs in class action cases filed against us typically claim enormous monetary damages even if the alleged per-user or entity harm is small or non-existent. In addition, we have faced, currently face, and will continue to face additional class action and other lawsuits based on claims related to advertising, antitrust, privacy, security, biometrics, content, algorithms, user well-being, employment, activities on our platform, consumer protection, or product performance or other claims related to the use of consumer hardware and software, including virtual reality technology and products, which are new and unproven. For example, we are currently the subject of multiple putative class action suits in connection with our platform and user data practices and the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in

There can be no assurances that a favorable final outcome will be obtained in all our cases, and defending any lawsuit is costly and can impose a significant burden on management and employees. Any litigation to which we are a party may result in an onerous or unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed upon appeal or in payments of substantial monetary damages or fines, or we may decide to settle lawsuits on similarly unfavorable terms, which has occurred in the past and which could adversely affect our business, financial conditions, or results of operations.

Our tax obligations, including income and non-income taxes, are based in part on our corporate operating structure and intercompany arrangements, including the manner in which we operate our business, develop, value, manage, protect, and use our intellectual property, and the valuations of our intercompany transactions. The tax laws applicable to our business, including the laws of the United States and other jurisdictions, are subject to interpretation and certain jurisdictions are aggressively interpreting their laws in new ways in an effort to raise additional tax revenue from companies such as Meta. We are subject to regular review and audit by U.S. federal, state, and foreign tax authorities. Tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken, including our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements, and any adverse outcome of such a review or audit could increase our worldwide effective tax rate, increase the amount of non-income taxes imposed on our business, and harm our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows. For example, in 2016 and 2018, the IRS issued formal assessments relating to transfer pricing with our foreign subsidiaries in conjunction with the examination of the 2010 through 2013 tax years. Although we disagree with the IRS's position and are litigating this issue, the ultimate resolution is uncertain and, if resolved in a manner unfavorable to us, may adversely affect our financial results.

The determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment by management, and there are many transactions where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Our provision for income taxes is determined by the manner in which we operate our business, and any changes to such operations or laws applicable to such operations may affect our effective tax rate. Although we believe that our provision for income taxes and estimates of our non-income tax liabilities are reasonable, the ultimate settlement may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.

Our future income tax rates could be volatile and difficult to predict due to changes in jurisdictional profit split, changes in the amount and recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities, or by changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles.

The tax regimes we are subject to or operate under, including income and non-income taxes, are unsettled and may be subject to significant change. Changes in tax laws or tax rulings, or changes in interpretations of existing laws, could materially affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows. For example, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Tax Act) enacted in December 2017 had a significant impact on our tax obligations and effective tax rate for the fourth quarter of 2017. The issuance of additional regulatory or accounting guidance related to the Tax Act, or other executive or Congressional actions in the United States or globally could materially increase our tax obligations and significantly impact our effective tax rate in the period such guidance is issued or such actions take effect, and in future periods. In addition, many countries have recently proposed or recommended changes to existing tax laws or have enacted new laws that could significantly increase our tax obligations in many countries where we do business or require us to change the manner in which we operate our business.

Over the last several years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been working on a Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project that, if implemented, would change various aspects of the existing framework under which our tax obligations are determined in many of the countries in which we do business. In 2021, more than 140 countries tentatively signed on to a framework that imposes a minimum tax rate of 15%, among other provisions. As this framework is subject to further negotiation and implementation by each member country, the timing and ultimate impact of any such changes on our tax obligations are uncertain. Similarly, the European Commission and several countries have issued proposals that would apply to various aspects of the current tax framework under which we are taxed. These proposals include changes to the existing framework to calculate income tax, as well as proposals to change or impose new types of non-income taxes, including taxes based on a percentage of revenue. For example, several jurisdictions have proposed or enacted taxes applicable to digital services, which include business activities on digital advertising and online marketplaces, and which apply to our business.

The European Commission has conducted investigations in multiple countries focusing on whether local country tax rulings or tax legislation provides preferential tax treatment that violates European Union state aid rules and concluded that certain member states, including Ireland, have provided illegal state aid in certain cases. These investigations may result in changes to the tax treatment of our foreign operations.

Due to the large and expanding scale of our international business activities, many of these types of changes to the taxation of our activities described above could increase our worldwide effective tax rate, increase the amount of non-income taxes imposed on our business, and harm our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows. Such changes may also apply retroactively to our historical operations and result in taxes greater than the amounts estimated and recorded in our financial statements.

The tax effects of the accounting for share-based compensation may significantly impact our effective tax rate from period to period. In periods in which our stock price varies from the grant price of the share-based compensation vesting in that period, we will recognize excess tax benefits or shortfalls that will impact our effective tax rate. For example, in 2022, tax shortfalls recognized from share-based compensation increased our provision for income taxes by $471 million and our effective tax rate by two percentage points as compared to the tax rate without such shortfalls. In future periods in which our stock price varies in comparison to the grant price of the share-based compensation vesting in that period, our effective tax rate may be inversely impacted. The amount and value of share-based compensation issued relative to our earnings in a particular period will also affect the magnitude of the impact of share-based compensation on our effective tax rate. These tax effects are dependent on our stock price, which we do not control, and a decline in our stock price could significantly increase our effective tax rate and adversely affect our financial results.

We review our intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable, such as a decline in stock price and market capitalization. We test goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level at least annually. If such goodwill or intangible assets are deemed to be impaired, an impairment loss equal to the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the fair value of the assets would be recognized. We may be required to record a significant charge in our financial statements during the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets is determined, which would negatively affect our results of operations.

We currently depend on the continued services and performance of our key personnel, including Mark Zuckerberg. Although we have entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Zuckerberg, the agreement has no specific duration and constitutes at-will employment. In addition, many of our key technologies and systems are custom-made for our business by our personnel. The loss of key personnel, including members of management as well as key engineering, product development, marketing, and sales personnel, could disrupt our operations and have an adverse effect on our business.

Mark Zuckerberg, our founder, Chairman, and CEO, is able to exercise voting rights with respect to a majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock and therefore has the ability to control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. This concentrated control could delay, defer, or prevent a change of control, merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets that our other stockholders support, or conversely this concentrated control could result in the consummation of such a transaction that our other stockholders do not support. This concentrated control could also discourage a potential investor from acquiring our Class A common stock, which has limited voting power relative to the Class B common stock, and might harm the trading price of our Class A common stock. In addition, Mr. Zuckerberg has the ability to control the management and major strategic investments of our company as a result of his position as our CEO and his ability to control the election or, in some cases, the replacement of our directors. In the event of his death, the shares of our capital stock that Mr. Zuckerberg owns will be transferred to the persons or entities that he has designated. As a board member and officer, Mr. Zuckerberg owes a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith in a manner he reasonably believes to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Zuckerberg is entitled to vote his shares, and shares over which he has voting control as governed by a voting agreement, in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.

Although our board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program that does not have an expiration date, the program does not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares of our Class A common stock. We cannot guarantee that the program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. The program could affect the trading price of our stock and increase volatility, and any announcement of a termination of this program may result in a decrease in the trading price of our stock. In addition, this program will diminish our cash reserves.

Governments from time to time seek to censor or moderate content available on Facebook or our other products in their country, restrict access to our products from their country partially or entirely, or impose other restrictions that may affect the accessibility of our products in their country for an extended period of time or indefinitely. For example, user access to Facebook and certain of our other products has been or is currently restricted in whole or in part in China, Iran, and North Korea. In addition, government authorities in other countries may seek to restrict user access to our products if they consider us to be in violation of their laws or a threat to public safety or for other reasons, and certain of our products have been restricted by governments in other countries from time to time. For example, in 2020, Hong Kong adopted a National Security Law that provides authorities with the ability to obtain information, remove and block access to content, and suspend

We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and abroad that involve matters central to our business, including privacy, data use, data protection and personal information, biometrics, encryption, rights of publicity, content, integrity, intellectual property, advertising, marketing, distribution, data security, data retention and deletion, data localization and storage, data disclosure, artificial intelligence and machine learning, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, civil rights, accessibility, telecommunications, product liability, e-commerce, taxation, economic or other trade controls including sanctions, anti-corruption and political law compliance, securities law compliance, and online payment services. The introduction of new products, expansion of our activities in certain jurisdictions, or other actions that we may take may subject us to additional laws, regulations, or other government scrutiny. In addition, foreign data protection, privacy, content, competition, consumer protection, and other laws and regulations can impose different obligations or be more restrictive than those in the United States.

These U.S. federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations, which in some cases can be enforced by private parties in addition to government entities, are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change. As a result, the application, interpretation, and enforcement of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate, and may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and inconsistently with our current policies and practices. For example, regulatory or legislative actions or litigation affecting the manner in which we display content to our users, moderate content, or obtain consent to various practices could adversely affect user growth and engagement. Such actions could affect the manner in which we provide our services or adversely affect our financial results.

We are also subject to evolving laws and regulations that dictate whether, how, and under what circumstances we can transfer, process and/or receive certain data that is critical to our operations, including data shared between countries or regions in which we operate and data shared among our products and services. For example, in 2016, the European Union and United States agreed to a transfer framework for data transferred from the European Union to the United States, called the Privacy Shield, but the Privacy Shield was invalidated in July 2020 by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In addition, the other bases upon which Meta relies to transfer such data, such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), have been subjected to regulatory and judicial scrutiny. For example, the CJEU considered the validity of SCCs as a basis to transfer user data from the European Union to the United States following a challenge brought by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC). Although the CJEU upheld the validity of SCCs in July 2020, our continued reliance on

We have been subject to other significant legislative and regulatory developments in the past, and proposed or new legislation and regulations could significantly affect our business in the future. For example, we have implemented a number of product changes and controls as a result of requirements under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and may implement additional changes in the future. The GDPR also requires submission of personal data breach notifications to our lead European Union privacy regulator, the IDPC, and includes significant penalties for non-compliance with the notification obligation as well as other requirements of the regulation. The interpretation of the GDPR is still evolving and draft decisions in investigations by the IDPC are subject to review by other European privacy regulators as part of the GDPR's consistency mechanism, which may lead to significant changes in the final outcome of such investigations. As a result, the interpretation and enforcement of the GDPR, as well as the imposition and amount of penalties for non-compliance, are subject to significant uncertainty. In addition, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and other countries have enacted similar data protection regulations imposing data privacy-related requirements on products and services offered to users in their respective jurisdictions. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), also establishes certain transparency rules and create new data privacy rights for users, including limitations on our use of certain sensitive personal information and more ability for users to control the purposes for which their data is shared with third parties. Other states have proposed or enacted similar comprehensive privacy laws that afford users with similar data privacy rights and controls. These laws and regulations are evolving and subject to interpretation, and resulting limitations on our advertising services, or reductions of advertising by marketers, have to some extent adversely affected, and will continue to adversely affect, our advertising business. For example, state regulators in California and Colorado are considering adopting regulations that could further limit how companies can use personal information for advertising purposes. In Europe, regulators continue to issue guidance concerning the ePrivacy Directive's requirements regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies, and may impose specific measures in the future which could directly impact our use of such technologies. In addition, the ePrivacy Directive and national implementation laws impose additional limitations on the use of data across messaging products and include significant penalties for non-compliance. Changes to our products or business practices as a result of these or similar developments have in the past adversely affected, and may in the future adversely affect, our advertising business. Similarly, there are a number of legislative proposals or recently enacted laws in the European Union, the United States, at both the federal and state level, as well as other jurisdictions that could impose new obligations or limitations in areas affecting our business. For example, the DMA in the European Union imposes new restrictions and requirements on companies like ours, including in areas such as the combination of data across services, mergers and acquisitions, and product design. The DMA also includes significant penalties for non-compliance, and its key requirements will be enforceable against designated gatekeeper companies in early 2024. We expect the DMA will cause us to incur significant compliance costs and make additional changes to our products or business practices. The requirements under the DMA will likely be subject to further interpretation and regulatory engagement. Pending or future proposals to

These laws and regulations, as well as any associated claims, inquiries, or investigations or any other government actions, have in the past led to, and may in the future lead to, unfavorable outcomes including increased compliance costs, loss of revenue, delays or impediments in the development of new products, negative publicity and reputational harm, increased operating costs, diversion of management time and attention, and remedies that harm our business, including fines or demands or orders that we modify or cease existing business practices.

We receive formal and informal inquiries from government authorities and regulators regarding our compliance with laws and regulations, many of which are evolving and subject to interpretation. We are and expect to continue to be the subject of investigations, inquiries, data requests, requests for information, actions, and audits in the United States, Europe, and around the world, particularly in the areas of privacy and data protection, including with respect to minors, law enforcement, consumer protection, civil rights, content moderation, and competition. In addition, we are currently, and may in the future be, subject to regulatory orders or consent decrees. For example, data protection, competition, and consumer protection authorities in the European Union and other jurisdictions have initiated actions, investigations, or administrative orders seeking to restrict the ways in which we collect and use information, or impose sanctions, and other authorities may do the same. In addition, beginning in March 2018, we became subject to FTC, state attorneys general, and other government inquiries in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions in connection with our platform and user data practices as well as the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in violation of our terms and policies. In July 2019, we entered into a settlement and modified consent order to resolve the FTC inquiry, which was approved by the federal court and took effect in April 2020. Among other matters, our settlement with the FTC required us to pay a penalty of $5.0 billion and to significantly enhance our practices and processes for privacy compliance and oversight. The state attorneys general inquiry and certain government inquiries in other jurisdictions remain ongoing. We also notify the IDPC, our lead European Union privacy regulator under the GDPR, and other regulators of certain other personal data breaches and privacy issues, and are subject to inquiries and investigations by the IDPC and other regulators regarding various aspects of our regulatory compliance. We have in the past been, and may in the future be, subject to fines and requirements to changes to our business practices as a result of such inquiries and investigations. In addition, we are subject to a lawsuit by the state of Texas in connection with the “tag suggestions” and other facial recognition features on our products.

We are also subject to various litigation and formal and informal inquiries and investigations by competition authorities in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions, which relate to many aspects of our business, including with respect to users and advertisers, as well as our industry. Such inquiries, investigations, and lawsuits concern, among other things, our business practices in the areas of social networking or social media services, digital advertising, and/or mobile or online applications, as well as our acquisitions. For example, in June 2019 we were informed by the FTC that it had opened an antitrust investigation of our company. In addition, beginning in the third quarter of 2019, we became the subject of antitrust inquiries and investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general. Beginning in December 2020, we also became subject to lawsuits by the FTC and the attorneys general from 46 states, the territory of Guam, and the District of Columbia in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that we violated antitrust laws, including by acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 and by maintaining conditions on access to our platform, among other things. The complaints of the FTC and attorneys general both sought a permanent injunction against our company's alleged violations of the antitrust laws, and other equitable relief, including divestiture or reconstruction of Instagram and WhatsApp. In addition, in December 2022, the European Commission issued a Statement of Objections alleging that we tie Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and use data in a manner that infringes European Union competition rules. We are also subject to other government inquiries and investigations relating to our business activities and disclosure practices. For example,

Orders issued by, or inquiries or enforcement actions initiated by, government or regulatory authorities could cause us to incur substantial costs, expose us to civil and criminal liability (including liability for our personnel) or penalties (including substantial monetary remedies), interrupt or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business (including changes to our products or user data practices), result in negative publicity and reputational harm, divert resources and the time and attention of management from our business, or subject us to other structural or behavioral remedies that adversely affect our business, and we have experienced some of these adverse effects to varying degrees from time to time.

We have faced, currently face, and will continue to face claims relating to information or content that is published or made available on our products, including our policies, algorithms, and enforcement actions with respect to such information or content. In particular, the nature of our business exposes us to claims related to defamation, dissemination of misinformation or news hoaxes, discrimination, harassment, intellectual property rights, rights of publicity and privacy, personal injury torts, laws regulating hate speech or other types of content, online safety, products liability, consumer protection, and breach of contract, among others. For example, we have recently seen an increase in claims brought by younger users related to well-being issues based on allegedly harmful content that is shared on or recommended by our products. The potential risks relating to any of the foregoing types of claims are currently enhanced in certain jurisdictions

Several of our products offer Payments functionality, including enabling our users to purchase tangible, virtual, and digital goods from merchants and developers that offer applications using our Payments infrastructure, send money to other users, and make donations to certain charitable organizations, among other activities. We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, including those governing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, money transmission, stored value, gift cards and other prepaid access instruments, electronic funds transfer, virtual currency, consumer protection, charitable fundraising, trade sanctions, and import and export restrictions. Depending on how our Payments products evolve, we may also be subject to other laws and regulations including those governing gambling, banking, and lending. In some jurisdictions, the application or interpretation of these laws and regulations is not clear. To increase flexibility in how our use of Payments may evolve and to mitigate regulatory uncertainty, we have received certain payments licenses in the United States, the European Economic Area, and other jurisdictions, which will generally require us to demonstrate compliance with many domestic and foreign laws in these areas. Our efforts to comply with these laws and regulations could be costly and result in diversion of management time and effort and may still not guarantee compliance. In the event that we are found to be in violation of any such legal or regulatory requirements, we may be subject to monetary fines or other penalties such as a cease and desist order, or we may be required to make product changes, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.

In addition, we are subject to a variety of additional risks as a result of Payments transactions, including: increased costs and diversion of management time and effort and other resources to deal with bad transactions or customer disputes; potential fraudulent or otherwise illegal activity by users, developers, employees, or third parties; restrictions on the

Our industry is prone to cyber-attacks by third parties seeking unauthorized access to our data or users' data or to disrupt our ability to provide service. Our products and services involve the collection, storage, processing, and transmission of a large amount of data. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches and improper access to or disclosure of our data or user data, including personal information, content, or payment information from users, or information from marketers, could result in the loss, modification, disclosure, destruction, or other misuse of such data, which could harm our business and reputation and diminish our competitive position. In addition, computer malware, viruses, social engineering (such as spear phishing attacks), scraping, and general hacking continue to be prevalent in our industry, have occurred on our systems in the past, and will occur on our systems in the future. We also regularly encounter attempts to create false or undesirable user accounts, purchase ads, or take other actions on our platform for purposes such as spamming, spreading misinformation, or other objectionable ends. As a result of our prominence, the size of our user base, the types and volume of personal data and content on our systems, and the evolving nature of our products and services (including our efforts involving new and emerging technologies), we believe that we are a particularly attractive target for such breaches and attacks, including from nation states and highly sophisticated, state-sponsored, or otherwise well-funded actors, and we experience heightened risk from time to time as a result of geopolitical events. Our efforts to address undesirable activity on our platform also increase the risk of retaliatory attacks. Such breaches and attacks may cause interruptions to the services we provide, degrade the user experience, cause users or marketers to lose confidence and trust in our products, impair our internal systems, or result in financial harm to us. Our efforts to protect our company data or the information we receive, and to disable undesirable activities on our platform, may also be unsuccessful due to software bugs or other technical malfunctions; employee, contractor, or vendor error or malfeasance, including defects or vulnerabilities in our vendors' information technology systems or offerings; government surveillance; breaches of physical security of our facilities or technical infrastructure; or other threats that evolve. In addition, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or users to disclose information in order to gain access to our data or our users' data. Cyber-attacks continue to evolve in sophistication and volume, and inherently may be difficult to detect for long periods of time. Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to protect our data and user data, to prevent data loss, to disable undesirable accounts and activities on our platform, and to prevent or detect security breaches, we cannot assure you that such measures will provide absolute security, that we will be able to react in a timely manner, or that our remediation efforts will be successful. The changes in our work environment as a result of certain personnel working remotely could also impact the security of our systems, as well as our ability to protect against attacks and detect and respond to them quickly.

In addition, some of our developers or other partners, such as those that help us measure the effectiveness of ads, may receive or store information provided by us or by our users through mobile or web applications integrated with our products. We provide limited information to such third parties based on the scope of services provided to us. However, if these third parties or developers fail to adopt or adhere to adequate data security practices, or in the event of a breach of their networks, our data or our users' data may be improperly accessed, used, or disclosed.

We experience such cyber-attacks and other security incidents of varying degrees from time to time, and we incur significant costs in protecting against or remediating such incidents. In addition, we are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and abroad relating to cybersecurity and data protection, as well as obligations under our modified consent order with the FTC. As a result, affected users or government authorities could initiate legal or regulatory actions against us in connection with any actual or perceived security breaches or improper access to or disclosure of data, which has occurred in the past and which could cause us to incur significant expense and liability or result in orders or consent decrees forcing us to modify our business practices. Such incidents or our efforts to remediate such incidents may also result in a decline in our active user base or engagement levels. Any of these events could have a material and adverse effect on our business, reputation, or financial results.

For example, in September 2018, we announced our discovery of a third-party cyber-attack that exploited a vulnerability in Facebook's code to steal user access tokens, which were then used to access certain profile information from approximately 29 million user accounts on Facebook. The events surrounding this cyber-attack became the subject of Irish Data Protection Commission and other government inquiries. Any such inquiries could subject us to substantial fines and costs, require us to change our business practices, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, or adversely affect our business.

In addition to our efforts to mitigate cybersecurity risks, we are making significant investments in privacy, safety, security, and content review efforts to combat misuse of our services and user data by third parties, including investigations and audits of platform applications, as well as other enforcement efforts. As a result of these efforts we have discovered and announced, and anticipate that we will continue to discover and announce, additional incidents of misuse of user data or other undesirable activity by third parties. We may not discover all such incidents or activity, whether as a result of our data or technical limitations, including our lack of visibility over our encrypted services, the scale of activity on our platform, the allocation of resources to other projects, or other factors, and we may be notified of such incidents or activity by the independent privacy assessor required under our modified consent order with the FTC, the media, or other third parties. Such incidents and activities have in the past, and may in the future, include the use of user data or our systems in a manner inconsistent with our terms, contracts or policies, the existence of false or undesirable user accounts, election interference, improper advertising practices, activities that threaten people's safety on- or offline, or instances of spamming, scraping, data harvesting, unsecured datasets, or spreading misinformation. We may also be unsuccessful in our efforts to enforce our policies or otherwise remediate any such incidents. Consequences of any of the foregoing developments include negative effects on user trust and engagement, harm to our reputation and brands, changes to our business practices in a manner adverse to our business, and adverse effects on our business and financial results. Any such developments may also subject us to additional litigation and regulatory inquiries, which could subject us to monetary penalties and damages, divert management's time and attention, and lead to enhanced regulatory oversight.

Our products and internal systems rely on software and hardware, including software and hardware developed or maintained internally and/or by third parties, that is highly technical and complex. In addition, our products and internal systems depend on the ability of such software and hardware to store, retrieve, process, and manage immense amounts of data. The software and hardware on which we rely has contained, and will in the future contain, errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities, and our systems are subject to certain technical limitations that may compromise our ability to meet our objectives. Some errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities inherently may be difficult to detect and may only be discovered after the code has been released for external or internal use. For example, in September 2018, we announced our discovery of a third-party cyber-attack that exploited a vulnerability in Facebook's code to steal user access tokens and access certain profile information from user accounts on Facebook. Errors, bugs, vulnerabilities, design defects, or technical limitations within the software and hardware on which we rely, or human error in using such systems, have in the past led to, and may in the future lead to, outcomes including a negative experience for users and marketers who use our products, compromised ability of our products to perform in a manner consistent with our terms, contracts, or policies, delayed product introductions or enhancements, targeting, measurement, or billing errors, compromised ability to protect the data of our users and/or our intellectual property or other data, or reductions in our ability to provide some or all of our services. For example, we make commitments to our users as to how their data will be collected, used, shared, and retained within and across our products, and our systems are subject to errors, bugs and technical limitations that may prevent us from fulfilling these commitments reliably. In addition, any errors, bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects in our systems or the software and hardware on which we rely, failures to properly address or mitigate the technical limitations in our systems, or associated degradations or interruptions of service or failures to fulfill our commitments to our users, have in the past led to, and may in the future lead to, outcomes including damage to our reputation, loss of users, loss of marketers, loss of revenue, regulatory inquiries, litigation, or liability for fines, damages, or other remedies, any of which could adversely affect our business and financial results.

We rely and expect to continue to rely on a combination of confidentiality, assignment, and license agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, and domain name protection laws, to protect our proprietary rights. In the United States and internationally, we have filed various applications for protection of certain aspects of our intellectual property, and we currently hold a significant number of registered trademarks and issued patents in multiple jurisdictions and have acquired patents and patent applications from third parties. Third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe our proprietary rights, third parties may challenge proprietary rights held by us, and pending and future trademark and patent applications may not be approved. In addition, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we operate or intend to operate our business. In any or all of these cases, we may be required to expend significant time and expense in order to prevent infringement or to enforce our rights. Although we have generally taken measures to protect our proprietary rights, there can be no assurance that others will not offer products or concepts that are substantially similar to ours and compete with our business. In addition, we regularly contribute software source code under open source licenses and have made other technology we developed available under other open licenses, and we include open source software in our products. As a result of our open source contributions and the use of open source in our products, we may license or be required to license or disclose code and/or innovations that turn out to be material to our business and may also be exposed to increased litigation risk. If the protection of our proprietary rights is inadequate to prevent unauthorized use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our brands and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our products, services, and methods of operations. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.

Companies in the internet, technology, and media industries own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property or other rights. In addition, various "non-practicing entities" that own patents and other intellectual property rights often attempt to aggressively assert their rights in order to extract value from technology companies. Furthermore, from time to time we may introduce or acquire new products, including in areas where we historically have not competed, which could increase our exposure to patent and other intellectual property claims from competitors and non-practicing entities.

From time to time, we receive notice from patent holders and other parties alleging that certain of our products and services, or user content, infringe their intellectual property rights. We presently are involved in a number of intellectual property lawsuits, and as we face increasing competition and develop new products and services, we expect the number of patent and other intellectual property claims against us to grow. Defending patent and other intellectual property litigation is costly and can impose a significant burden on management and employees, and there can be no assurances that favorable final outcomes will be obtained in all cases. In addition, plaintiffs may seek, and we may become subject to, preliminary or provisional rulings in the course of any such litigation, including potential preliminary injunctions requiring us to cease some or all of our operations. We may decide to settle such lawsuits and disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. Similarly, if any litigation to which we are a party is resolved adversely, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed upon appeal. The terms of such a settlement or judgment may require us to cease some or all of our operations or pay substantial amounts to the other party. In addition, we may have to seek a license to continue practices found to be in violation of a third party's rights, which may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology or practices or discontinue the practices. The development of alternative non-infringing technology or practices could require significant effort and expense, could result in less effective technology or practices or otherwise negatively affect the user experience, or may not be feasible. We have experienced unfavorable outcomes in such disputes and litigation in the past, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected as a result of an unfavorable resolution of the disputes and litigation referred to above.

The trading price of our Class A common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, volatile. Since shares of our Class A common stock were sold in our initial public offering in May 2012 at a price of $38.00 per share, our stock price has ranged from $17.55 to $384.33 through December 31, 2022. In addition to the factors discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the trading price of our Class A common stock has in the past fluctuated and may in the future fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many technology companies. We are currently subject to securities litigation in connection with our platform and user data practices and the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in violation of our terms and policies; the disclosure of our earnings results for the second quarter of 2018; a former employee's allegations and release of internal company documents beginning in September 2021; and the disclosure of our earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2021. We may experience more such litigation following future periods of volatility. Any securities litigation could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, and adversely affect our business.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business and fund our share repurchase program, and we do not expect to declare or pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you may only receive a return on your investment in our Class A common stock if the trading price of your shares increases.

Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. Holders of our Class B common stock, including our founder, Chairman, and CEO, together hold a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock, and therefore are able to control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval so long as the shares of Class B common stock represent at least 9.1% of all outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock. This concentrated control will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future.

Transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for estate planning or charitable purposes. The conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, Mr. Zuckerberg retains a significant portion of his holdings of Class B common stock for an extended period of time, he could, in the future, continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock.

Because we qualify as a "controlled company" under the corporate governance rules for Nasdaq-listed companies, we are not required to have a majority of our board of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function. In the future we could elect not to have a majority of our board of directors be independent or not to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function. Accordingly, should the interests of our controlling stockholder differ from those of other stockholders, the other stockholders may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance rules for Nasdaq-listed companies. Our status as a controlled company could make our Class A common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price.

Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our current certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:

None.

In addition, we have offices in more than 90 cities across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. We also own 21 data centers locations globally.

We believe that our facilities are adequate for our current needs.

Beginning on March 20, 2018, multiple putative class actions and derivative actions were filed in state and federal courts in the United States and elsewhere against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws, breach of fiduciary duties, and other causes of action in connection with our platform and user data practices as well as the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in violation of our terms and policies, and seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief. Beginning on July 27, 2018, two putative class actions were filed in federal court in the United States against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws in connection with the disclosure of our earnings results for the second quarter of 2018 and seeking unspecified damages. These two actions subsequently were transferred and consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with the putative securities class action described above relating to our platform and user data practices. On September 25, 2019, the district court granted our motion to dismiss the consolidated putative securities class action, with leave to amend. On November 15, 2019, a second amended complaint was filed in the consolidated putative securities class action. On August 7, 2020, the district court granted our motion to dismiss the second amended complaint, with leave to amend. On October 16, 2020, a third amended complaint was filed in the consolidated putative securities class action. On December 20, 2021, the district court granted our motion to dismiss the third amended complaint, with prejudice. On January 17, 2022, the plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal of the order dismissing their case, and the appeal is now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. With respect to the multiple putative class actions filed against us beginning on March 20, 2018 alleging fraud and violations of consumer protection, privacy, and other laws in connection with the same matters, several of the cases brought on behalf of consumers in the United States were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. On September 9, 2019, the court granted, in part, and denied, in part, our motion to dismiss the consolidated putative consumer class action. On December 22, 2022, the parties entered into a settlement agreement to resolve the lawsuit, which provides for a payment of $725 million by us and is subject to court approval. In addition, our platform and user data practices, as well as the events surrounding the misuse of certain data by a developer, became the subject of U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), state attorneys general, and other government inquiries in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions. We entered into a settlement and modified consent order to resolve the FTC inquiry, which took effect in April 2020 and required us to pay a penalty of $5.0 billion and to significantly enhance our practices and processes for privacy compliance and oversight. The state attorneys general inquiry and certain government inquiries in other jurisdictions remain ongoing and could subject us to additional substantial fines and costs, require us to change our business practices, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, or adversely affect our business. On July 16, 2021, a stockholder derivative action was filed in Delaware Chancery Court against certain of our directors and officers asserting breach of fiduciary duty and related claims relating to our historical platform and user data practices, as well as our settlement with the FTC. On July 20, 2021, other stockholders filed an amended derivative complaint in a related Delaware Chancery Court action, asserting breach of fiduciary duty and related claims against certain of our current and former directors and officers in connection with our historical platform and user data practices. On November 4, 2021, the lead

We also notify the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC), our lead European Union privacy regulator under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), of certain other personal data breaches and privacy issues, and are subject to inquiries and investigations by the IDPC and other European regulators regarding various aspects of our regulatory compliance. For example, in August 2020, we received a preliminary draft decision from the IDPC that preliminarily concluded that Meta Platforms Ireland's reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses in respect of European Union/European Economic Area Facebook user data does not achieve compliance with the GDPR and preliminarily proposed that transfers of such user data from the European Union to the United States should therefore be suspended. In February 2022, we received a revised preliminary draft decision in which the IDPC maintained its preliminary conclusion that these transfers should be suspended. The IDPC's draft decision was then further refined and shared on July 6, 2022 with other European data protection regulators (CSAs) as part of the GDPR's consistency mechanism. Separately, on October 7, 2022, President Biden signed the Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities, and on December 13, 2022, the European Commission published its draft adequacy decision on the proposed new European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. On January 19, 2023, the IDPC referred the inquiry to a vote by the European Data Protection Board, pursuant to the dispute resolution process under Article 65 GDPR, in respect of elements of the draft decision over which consensus could not be reached between concerned supervisory authorities. We believe a final decision in this inquiry may issue as early as the first quarter of 2023. For additional information, see Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors—Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data use and data protection, content, competition, safety and consumer protection, e-commerce, and other matters" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any such inquiries or investigations (including the IDPC proceeding) could subject us to substantial fines and costs, require us to change our business practices, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, or adversely affect our business.

In addition, we are subject to various litigation and government inquiries and investigations, formal or informal, by competition authorities in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions. Such investigations, inquiries, and lawsuits concern, among other things, our business practices in the areas of social networking or social media services, digital advertising, and/or mobile or online applications, as well as our acquisitions. For example, in June 2019 we were informed by the FTC that it had opened an antitrust investigation of our company. On December 9, 2020, the FTC filed a complaint against us in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that we engaged in anticompetitive conduct and unfair methods of competition in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and Section 2 of the Sherman Act, including by acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 and by maintaining conditions on access to our platform. In addition, beginning in the third quarter of 2019, we became the subject of antitrust investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general. On December 9, 2020, the attorneys general from 46 states, the territory of Guam, and the District of Columbia filed a complaint against us in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that we engaged in anticompetitive conduct in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, including by acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 and by maintaining conditions on access to our platform. The complaint also alleged that we violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. The complaints of the FTC and attorneys general both sought a permanent injunction against our company's alleged violations of the antitrust laws, and other equitable relief, including divestiture or reconstruction of Instagram and WhatsApp. On June 28, 2021, the court granted our motions to dismiss the complaints filed by the FTC and attorneys general, dismissing the FTC's complaint with leave to amend and dismissing the attorneys general's case without prejudice. On July 28, 2021, the attorneys general filed a notice of appeal of the order dismissing their case and that appeal is now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. On August 19, 2021, the FTC filed an amended complaint, and on October 4, 2021, we filed a motion to dismiss this amended complaint. On January 11, 2022, the court denied our motion to dismiss the FTC's amended complaint. Multiple putative class actions have also been filed in state and federal courts in the United States and in the United Kingdom against us alleging violations of antitrust laws and other causes of action in connection with these acquisitions and/or other alleged anticompetitive conduct, and seeking damages and injunctive relief. Several of the cases brought on behalf of certain advertisers and users in the United States were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. On January 14, 2022, the court granted, in part, and denied, in part, our motion to dismiss the consolidated actions. On March 1, 2022, a first amended consolidated complaint was filed in the putative class action brought on behalf of certain advertisers. On December 6, 2022, the court denied our motion to dismiss the first amended consolidated complaint filed in the putative class action brought on behalf of certain advertisers. In addition, on July 27, 2022, the FTC filed a complaint against us in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seeking to preliminarily enjoin our proposed acquisition of Within Unlimited as an alleged violation of antitrust law. The FTC subsequently filed a related complaint in

Beginning in January 2022, we became subject to litigation and other proceedings that were filed in various federal and California state courts alleging that Facebook and Instagram cause "social media addiction" in teenage users, resulting in various mental health and other harms. A putative class action alleging similar harms was also filed in California state court on behalf of users under the age of 13 and three school districts recently filed public nuisance claims based on similar allegations. On October 6, 2022, the federal cases were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The state court proceedings are now pending before a trial judge from Los Angeles County Superior Court. We believe these lawsuits are without merit, and we are vigorously defending them. We are also subject to government investigations and requests from multiple regulators concerning the use of our products, and the related mental and physical health and safety impacts on teenage users.

We are also subject to other government inquiries and investigations relating to our business activities and disclosure practices. For example, beginning in September 2021, we became subject to government investigations and requests relating to a former employee's allegations and release of internal company documents concerning, among other things, our algorithms, advertising and user metrics, and content enforcement practices, as well as misinformation and other undesirable activity on our platform, and user well-being. We have since received additional requests relating to these and other topics. Beginning on October 27, 2021, multiple putative class actions and derivative actions were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws, breach of fiduciary duties, and other causes of action in connection with the same matters, and seeking unspecified damages. We believe these lawsuits are without merit, and we are vigorously defending them.

On March 8, 2022, a putative class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws in connection with the disclosure of our earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2021 and seeking unspecified damages. We believe this lawsuit is without merit, and we are vigorously defending it.

Beginning on August 15, 2018, multiple putative class actions were filed against us alleging that we inflated our estimates of the potential audience size for advertisements, resulting in artificially increased demand and higher prices. The cases were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and seek unspecified damages and injunctive relief. In a series of rulings in 2019, 2021, and 2022, the court dismissed certain of the plaintiffs' claims, but permitted its fraud and unfair competition claims to proceed. On March 29, 2022, the court granted the plaintiffs' motion for class certification. On June 21, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted our petition for permission to appeal the district court's class certification order, and the district court subsequently stayed the case. We believe this lawsuit is without merit, and we are vigorously defending it.

In July 2017, an individual filed an action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against us and other companies for allegedly violating the Anti-Terrorism Act by aiding, abetting, and providing material support to an organization that committed an international terrorist act, and seeking unspecified damages. In October 2018, the district court granted our motion to dismiss. In June 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the judgment. On October 3, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the judgment in this action, along with a companion case against another company in which the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the scope of protection available to online platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Section 230). We believe this lawsuit is without merit, and we are vigorously defending it. However, changes to the protections available under Section 230 may increase our costs or require significant changes to our products, business practices, or operations, which could adversely affect our business.

On February 14, 2022, the State of Texas filed a lawsuit against us in Texas state court alleging that “tag suggestions" and other facial recognition features on our products violated the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act and the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, and seeking statutory damages and injunctive relief. The case is currently scheduled for trial in October 2023. We believe this lawsuit is without merit, and we are vigorously defending it.

In addition, we are subject to litigation and other proceedings involving law enforcement and other regulatory agencies, including in particular in Brazil, Russia, and other countries in Europe, in order to ascertain the precise scope of our legal obligations to comply with the requests of those agencies, including our obligation to disclose user information in particular circumstances. A number of such instances have resulted in the assessment of fines and penalties against us. We believe we have multiple legal grounds to satisfy these requests or prevail against associated fines and penalties, and we intend to vigorously defend such fines and penalties.

We are also party to various other legal proceedings, claims, and regulatory, tax or government inquiries and investigations that arise in the ordinary course of business, and we may in the future be subject to additional legal proceedings and disputes.

Not applicable.

On June 9, 2022, Meta's Class A common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol 'META'. This replaced the ticker symbol 'FB,' which had been used since the company's initial public offering in 2012. Prior to that time, there was no public market for our stock.

Our Class B common stock is not listed on any stock exchange nor traded on any public market.

As of December 31, 2022, there were 3,204 stockholders of record of our Class A common stock, and the closing price of our Class A common stock was $120.34 per share as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Because many of our shares of Class A common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these record holders. As of December 31, 2022, there were 27 stockholders of record of our Class B common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our common stock. We intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business and fund our share repurchase program, and we do not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

The following graph shows a comparison of the cumulative total return for our Class A common stock, the Dow Jones Internet Composite Index (DJINET), the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index (S&P 500) and the Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq Composite) for the five years ended December 31, 2022. The graph assumes that $100 was invested at the market close on the last trading day for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 in the Class A common stock of Meta Platforms, Inc., the DJINET, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite and data for the DJINET, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite assumes reinvestments of gross dividends. The stock price performance of the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

See Note 3 — Restructuring in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding restructuring charges.

Substantially all of our revenue is currently generated from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. We rely on targeting and measurement tools that incorporate data signals from user activity on websites and services that we do not control in order to deliver relevant and effective ads to our users. Our advertising revenue has been, and we expect will continue to be, adversely affected by reduced marketer spending as a result of limitations on our ad targeting and measurement tools arising from changes to the regulatory environment and third-party mobile operating systems and browsers.

In particular, legislative and regulatory developments such as the General Data Protection Regulation, ePrivacy Directive, and California Privacy Rights Act have impacted our ability to use data signals in our ad products, and we expect these and other developments such as the Digital Markets Act will have further impact in the future. As a result, we have implemented, and we will continue to implement, changes to our products and user data practices, which reduce our ability to effectively target and measure ads. In addition, mobile operating system and browser providers, such as Apple and Google, have implemented product changes and/or announced future plans to limit the ability of websites and application developers to collect and use these signals to target and measure advertising. For example, in 2021, Apple made certain changes to its products and data use policies in connection with changes to its iOS operating system that reduce our and other iOS developers' ability to target and measure advertising, which has negatively impacted, and we expect will continue to negatively impact, the size of the budgets marketers are willing to commit to us and other advertising platforms.

To mitigate these developments, we are working to evolve our advertising systems to improve the performance of our ad products. We are developing privacy enhancing technologies to deliver relevant ads and measurement capabilities while reducing the amount of personal information we process, including by relying more on anonymized or aggregated third-party data. In addition, we are developing tools that enable marketers to share their data into our systems, as well as ad products that generate more valuable signals within our apps. More broadly, we also continue to innovate our advertising tools to help marketers prepare campaigns and connect with consumers, including developing growing formats such as Reels ads and our business messaging ad products. Across all of these efforts, we are making significant investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve our delivery, targeting, and measurement capabilities. We are also engaging with others across our industry to explore the possibility of new open standards for the private and secure processing of data for advertising purposes. We expect that some of these efforts will be long-term initiatives, and that the regulatory and platform developments described above will continue to adversely impact our advertising revenue for the foreseeable future.

Although we regularly evaluate a variety of sources to understand trends in our advertising revenue, we do not have perfect visibility into the factors driving advertiser spending decisions and our assessments involve complex judgments about what is driving advertising decisions across a large and diversified advertiser base across the globe. Trends impacting advertising spend are also dynamic and interrelated. As a result, it is difficult to identify with precision which advertiser spending decisions are attributable to which trends, and we are unable to quantify the exact impact that each trend had on our advertising revenue during the periods presented.

The numbers for our key Family metrics, our DAP, MAP, and average revenue per person (ARPP), do not include users on our other products unless they would otherwise qualify as DAP or MAP, respectively, based on their other activities on our Family products.

Trends in the number of people in our community affect our revenue and financial results by influencing the number of ads we are able to show, the value of our ads to marketers, as well as our expenses and capital expenditures. Substantially all of our daily and monthly active people (as defined below) access our Family products on mobile devices.

Worldwide DAP increased 5% to 2.96 billion on average during December 2022 from 2.82 billion during December 2021.

As of December 31, 2022, we had 3.74 billion MAP, an increase of 4% from 3.59 billion as of December 31, 2021.

Our annual worldwide ARPP in 2022, which represents the sum of quarterly ARPP during such period, was $31.79, a decrease of 6% from 2021.

The numbers for our key Facebook metrics, our DAUs, MAUs, and average revenue per user (ARPU), do not include users on Instagram, WhatsApp, or our other products, unless they would otherwise qualify as DAUs or MAUs, respectively, based on their other activities on Facebook.

Trends in the number of users affect our revenue and financial results by influencing the number of ads we are able to show, the value of our ads to marketers, as well as our expenses and capital expenditures. Substantially all of our daily and monthly active users (as defined below) access Facebook on mobile devices.

We calculate our revenue by user geography based on our estimate of the geography in which ad impressions are delivered, virtual and digital goods are purchased, or consumer hardware products are shipped. We define ARPU as our total revenue in a given geography during a given quarter, divided by the average of the number of MAUs in the geography at the beginning and end of the quarter. While ARPU includes all sources of revenue, the number of MAUs used in this calculation only includes users of Facebook and Messenger as described in the definition of MAU above. While the share of revenue from users who are not also Facebook or Messenger MAUs has grown over time, we estimate that revenue from users who are Facebook or Messenger MAUs represents the substantial majority of our total revenue. See "Average Revenue Per Person (ARPP)" above for our estimates of trends in our monetization of our Family products. The geography of our users affects our revenue and financial results because we currently monetize users in different geographies at different average rates. Our revenue and ARPU in regions such as United States & Canada and Europe are relatively higher primarily due to the size and maturity of those online and mobile advertising markets. For example, ARPU in 2022 in the United States & Canada region was more than 11 times higher than in the Asia-Pacific region.

Our annual worldwide ARPU in 2022, which represents the sum of quarterly ARPU during such period, was $39.63, a decrease of 3% from 2021. For 2022, ARPU decreased by 9% in Europe and 4% in United States & Canada, and increased by 4% in Asia-Pacific and 8% in Rest of World. In addition, user growth was mostly in geographies with relatively lower ARPU, such as Asia‑Pacific and Rest of World. We expect that user growth in the future will be primarily concentrated in those regions where ARPU is relatively lower, such that worldwide ARPU may decrease at a higher rate, or increase at a slower rate, relative to ARPU in any geographic region in a particular period, or potentially decrease even if ARPU increases in each geographic region.

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions based on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

An accounting policy is deemed to be critical if the nature of the estimates or assumptions is material due to the levels of subjectivity and judgment necessary to account for highly uncertain matters or the susceptibility of such matters to change, and the impact of the estimates and assumptions on our consolidated financial statements is material. We believe that the assumptions and estimates associated with gross vs. net in revenue recognition, valuation of non-marketable equity securities, income taxes, loss contingencies, and valuation of long-lived assets including goodwill, intangible assets, and property and equipment, and their associated estimated useful lives, when applicable, have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements. Therefore, we consider these to be our critical accounting policies and estimates. For further information on all of our significant accounting policies, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in the accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

For revenue generated from arrangements that involve third parties, there is significant judgment in evaluating whether we are the principal, and report revenue on a gross basis, or the agent, and report revenue on a net basis. In this assessment, we consider if we obtain control of the specified goods or services before they are transferred to the customer, as well as other indicators such as the party primarily responsible for fulfillment, inventory risk, and discretion in establishing price. The assessment of whether we are considered the principal or the agent in a transaction could impact our revenue and cost of revenue recognized on the consolidated statements of income.

For our non-marketable equity securities without readily determinable fair values accounted for using the measurement alternative, determining whether a non-marketable equity security issued by the same issuer is similar to the non-marketable equity security we hold may require judgment in (a) assessment of differences in rights and obligations associated with the instruments such as voting rights, distribution rights and preferences, and conversion features, and (b) adjustments to the observable price for differences such as, but not limited to, rights and obligations, control premium, liquidity, or principal or most advantageous markets. In addition, the identification of observable transactions will depend on the timely reporting of these transactions from our investee companies, which may occur in a period subsequent to when the transactions take place. Therefore, our fair value adjustment for these observable transactions may occur in a period subsequent to when the transaction actually occurred. For non-marketable equity securities, we perform a qualitative assessment at each reporting date to determine whether there are triggering events for impairment. The qualitative assessment considers factors such as, but not limited to, the investee's financial condition and business outlook; industry and sector performance; regulatory, economic or technological environment; operational and financing cash flows; and other relevant events and factors affecting the investee. When indicators of impairment exist, we estimate the fair value of our non-marketable equity securities using the market approach and/or the income approach and recognize impairment loss in the consolidated statements of income if the estimated fair value is less than the carrying value. Estimating fair value requires judgment and use of estimates such as discount rates, forecast cash flows, holding period, and market data of comparable companies, among others.

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our provision for income taxes and income tax assets and liabilities, including evaluating uncertainties in the application of accounting principles and complex tax laws.

We recognize tax benefits from uncertain tax positions only if we believe that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position. These uncertain tax positions include our estimates for transfer pricing that have been developed based upon analyses of appropriate

We are involved in legal proceedings, claims, and regulatory, tax or government inquiries and investigations that arise in the ordinary course of business. Certain of these matters include speculative claims for substantial or indeterminate amounts of damages. Additionally, we are required to comply with various legal and regulatory obligations around the world, and we regularly become subject to new laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate. The requirements for complying with these obligations may be uncertain and subject to interpretation and enforcement by regulatory and other authorities, and any failure to comply with such obligations could eventually lead to asserted legal or regulatory action. With respect to these matters, asserted and unasserted, we evaluate the associated developments on a regular basis and accrue a liability when we believe that it is both probable that a loss has been incurred and the amount can be reasonably estimated. If we determine there is a reasonable possibility that we may incur a loss and the loss or range of loss can be reasonably estimated, we disclose the possible loss in the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements to the extent material.

We review the developments in our contingencies that could affect the amount of the provisions that have been previously recorded, and the matters and related reasonably possible losses disclosed. We make adjustments to our provisions and changes to our disclosures accordingly to reflect the merits of our defenses and the impact of negotiations, settlements, regulatory proceedings, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and updated information. Significant judgment is required to determine the probability of loss and the estimated amount of loss, including when and if the probability and estimate has changed for asserted and unasserted matters. Certain factors, in particular, have resulted in significant changes to these estimates and judgments in prior quarters based on updated information available. For example, in certain jurisdictions where we operate, fines and penalties may be the result of new laws and preliminary interpretations regarding the basis of assessing damages, which may make it difficult to estimate what such fines and penalties would amount to if successfully asserted against us. In addition, certain government inquiries and investigations, such as matters before our lead European Union privacy regulator, the IDPC, are subject to review by other regulatory bodies before decisions are finalized, which can lead to significant changes in the outcome of an inquiry. As a result of these and other factors, we reasonably expect that our estimates and judgments with respect to our contingencies may continue to be revised in future quarters.

The ultimate outcome of these matters, such as whether the likelihood of loss is remote, reasonably possible, or probable or if and when the reasonably possible range of loss is estimable, is inherently uncertain. Therefore, if one or more of these matters were resolved against us for amounts in excess of management's estimates of losses, our results of operations and financial condition, including in a particular reporting period in which any such outcome becomes probable and estimable, could be materially adversely affected. See Note 13 — Commitments and Contingencies and Note 16 — Income Taxes of the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" and Part I, Item 3, "Legal Proceedings" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding these contingencies.

We allocate the fair value of purchase consideration to the tangible assets acquired, liabilities assumed, and intangible assets acquired based on their estimated fair values. The excess of the fair value of purchase consideration over the fair values of these identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill to reporting units based on the expected benefit from the business combination. Such valuations require management to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Significant estimates in valuing certain intangible assets include, but are not limited to, estimated replacement costs and future expected cash flows from acquired users, acquired technology, acquired patents, and trade

Goodwill is tested for impairment at the reporting unit level annually or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying value. We have two reporting units subject to goodwill impairment testing. As of December 31, 2022, no impairment of goodwill has been identified.

Long-lived assets, including property and equipment and finite-lived intangible assets are reviewed for possible impairment whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of such assets may not be recoverable. The evaluation is performed at the lowest level for which identifiable cash flows are largely independent of the cash flows of other assets and liabilities. Recoverability of these assets is measured by a comparison of the carrying amounts to the future undiscounted cash flows the assets are expected to generate from the use and eventual disposition. If such review indicates that the carrying amount of property and equipment and intangible assets is not recoverable, the carrying amount of such assets is reduced to fair value.

The useful lives of our long-lived assets including property and equipment and finite-lived intangible assets are determined by management when those assets are initially recognized and are routinely reviewed for the remaining estimated useful lives. The current estimate of useful lives represents our best estimate based on current facts and circumstances, but may differ from the actual useful lives due to changes in future circumstances such as changes to our business operations, changes in the planned use of assets, and technological advancements. When we change the estimated useful life assumption for any asset, the remaining carrying amount of the asset is accounted for prospectively and depreciated or amortized over the revised remaining useful life.

In connection with our periodic reviews of the estimated useful lives of property and equipment, we extended the estimated average useful lives of our servers and network assets category effective the second and the fourth quarters of 2022. The financial impact of the changes in estimates was a reduction in depreciation expense of $860 million and an increase in net income of $693 million, or $0.26 per diluted share for the year ended December 31, 2022. The impact from the changes in our estimates was calculated based on the servers and network assets existing as of the effective date of the change and applying the revised useful lives prospectively.

See Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in the accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, for additional information regarding the changes in the estimated useful lives of our servers and network assets.

In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. For a discussion of the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of income data (in millions):

The following table sets forth our revenue by source and by segment. For comparative purposes, amounts for the year ended December 31, 2020 have been recast:

FoA revenue in 2022 decreased $1.21 billion, or 1%, compared to 2021. The decrease was mostly driven by advertising revenue.

Advertising revenue in 2022 decreased $1.29 billion, or 1%, compared to 2021 due to a decrease in the average price per ad, partially offset by an increase in the number of ads delivered. In 2022, the average price per ad decreased by 16%, as compared with an increase of 24% in 2021. The decrease in average price per ad was driven by an increase in the number of ads delivered, especially in geographies and in products such as video and Reels that monetize at lower rates, and an unfavorable foreign exchange impact. In addition, the decrease in average price per ad was impacted by a reduction in advertising demand, which we believe was primarily driven by reduced marketer spending as a result of a more challenging macroeconomic environment and limitations on our ad targeting and measurement tools arising from changes to iOS and the regulatory environment, as well as, to a lesser extent, the other factors discussed in the section entitled "—Executive Overview of Full Year 2022 Results." In 2022, the number of ads delivered increased by 18%, as compared with a 10% increase in 2021. Ads impressions grew in all regions during 2022, mostly driven by an increase in ads delivered in Asia-Pacific and Rest of World. The increase in the ads delivered during 2022 was driven by increases in the number and frequency of ads displayed across our products and an increase in users. We anticipate that future advertising revenue will be driven by a combination of price and the number of ads delivered.

RL revenue in 2022 decreased $115 million, or 5%, compared to 2021. The decrease in RL revenue was driven by a decrease in the volume of Meta Quest sales.

Revenue is traditionally seasonally strong in the fourth quarter of each year due in part to seasonal holiday demand. We believe that this seasonality in both advertising revenue and RL consumer hardware sales affects our quarterly results, which generally reflect significant growth in revenue between the third and fourth quarters and a decline between the fourth and subsequent first quarters. For instance, our total revenue increased 16%, 16%, and 31% between the third and fourth quarters of 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively, while total revenue for the first quarters of 2022, 2021, and 2020 declined 17%, 7%, and 16% compared to the fourth quarters of 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.

No customer represented 10% or more of total revenue during the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020.

The general strengthening of the U.S. dollar relative to certain foreign currencies in the full year 2022 compared to the same period in 2021 had an unfavorable impact on revenue. If we had translated revenue for the full year 2022 using the prior

Cost of revenue in 2022 increased $2.60 billion, or 11%, compared to 2021. The increase was mainly due to an increase in operational expenses related to our data centers and technical infrastructure, adjusted for a decrease in the depreciation growth rate due to extensions in the useful lives of servers and network assets. In addition, we recorded $1.34 billion of abandonment charges related to data center assets. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in RL inventory cost including lower losses on purchase commitments.

See Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 3 — Restructuring in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding changes in the estimated useful life of our servers and network assets as well as the abandonment charges related to data center assets, respectively.

Research and development expenses in 2022 increased $10.68 billion, or 43%, compared to 2021. The increase was mainly due to higher payroll and related expenses and $1.31 billion impairment charges to leases and leasehold improvements as part of our restructuring efforts. Our payroll and related expenses increased as a result of a 26% increase in employee headcount from December 31, 2021 to December 31, 2022 in engineering and other technical functions supporting our continued investment in our family of products and RL.

Marketing and sales expenses in 2022 increased $1.22 billion, or 9%, compared to 2021. The increase was mostly due to increases in payroll and related expenses and $404 million impairment charges to leases and leasehold improvements as part of our restructuring efforts.

General and administrative expenses in 2022 increased $1.99 billion, or 20%, compared to 2021. The increase was primarily due to increases in payroll and related expenses and $426 million impairment charges to leases and leasehold improvements as part of our restructuring efforts. Our payroll and related expenses increased as a result of a 20% increase in employee headcount from December 31, 2021 to December 31, 2022 in our general and administrative functions.

See Note 3 — Restructuring in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding impairment charges to leases and leasehold improvements.

The following table sets forth income (loss) from operations by segment. For comparative purposes, amounts for the year ended December 31, 2020 have been recast:

See Note 3 — Restructuring in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.