Meta remembered how to make money and posted year-over-year revenue growth for the first time in a year. This, of course, means an earnings call, which means quotes we'll all try to read like tea leaves.

Like this one:

Mr. Zuckerberg attributed some of these gains to Reels, the company’s short-form video product. Mr. Zuckerberg said that Reels is increasing overall app engagement and that the company believes it is gaining share in the short-form video market.

Despite what Instagram engagement trends are suggesting, Reels are still a prime focus for Big Blue. Don't sleep on the format.

It's weird to hear the company position itself as the open-source friendly tech giant.

He also said that he expects Meta to take a more open-source approach to generative AI than companies like Alphabet Inc., MicrosoftCorp. and Amazon.com Inc. due to their different business models.

It does make sense, but that doesn't make it less weird. (And yes, I know they have a history of being pretty open with their AI research in the past.) Of course, the vision is that they'll set the standard.

For us, it’s way better if the industry standardizes on the basic tools that we’re using, and therefore, we can benefit from the improvements others make.

Speaking of AI, it's use in the TikTok-ification of the OG feed is growing.

How much feed content is determined by AI (as opposed to the act of following)?

• 20%+ on Facebook
• 40%+ on Instagram

R.I.P. social graph?

Meta also unveiled a new plan for revenue generation: a mandatory e-commerce tax.

Soon, the only way to use the native Shops feature on Facebook and Instagram will be via in-app checkout. Which means merchants will be forced to pay the 5% (or $0.40 on purchases less than $8) selling fee or shutter their Shops.

When is soon? 1 year if you're in the US. August everywhere else. Except for 21 countries that can ignore this entirely (for now).

After June 5, all new shops will be required to Checkout on Facebook / Instagram.

Losing your Shop also means losing product tagging abilities and other features (I think basically anything involving a catalog).

This is a big push for social commerce, but I'm still not bullish based on current trends (at least not for all businesses and categories). Even if a (Snapchat sponsored) study found that 92% of people would buy from a DTC brand directly on social. (PDF)