Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram pulled in $1.74 billion from just a portion of its Australian advertisers last year, a 19 per cent jump on 2024, but shipped $1.51 billion of that back to other companies owned by Meta for the privilege of reselling the tech giant’s ad inventory.
Financial statements lodged with the corporate regulator reveal the tech giant’s local subsidiary, Facebook Australia, also paid its first dividend in at least two years – $120 million to its US-based parent – and ended the year with just 128 employees.
The filings land as the Albanese government prepares to unveil draft legislation for its News Media Bargaining Incentive, which is designed to force tech giants including Meta to pay publishers for the value of journalism distributed on their platforms.
Meta’s financials show its local entity collected $1.74 billion in gross advertising revenue from select Australian customers, up from $1.46 billion in 2024. But it reported net revenue of just $223.9 million, largely because it paid $1.51 billion to companies owned by Meta around the world.
That is because Facebook Australia is technically a reseller, so when it sells an ad to an Australian business, it then pays another company within Meta’s $US1.7 trillion ($2.37 trillion) corporate group for the virtual space to show that ad on Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp.
Meta’s true earnings from Australia are likely to be much higher, because its Australian company only sells to “designated” local customers while others buy ads directly from Meta companies that are based offshore.
After $81 million in employee costs and $47.9 million in income tax, the entity posted a net profit of $61.2 million, up 26 per cent from $48.6 million the previous year. The $120 million dividend exceeded the company’s full-year profit, drawing down retained earnings accumulated over previous years. Facebook Australia’s immediate parent company is based in the corporate-friendly, high secrecy US state of Delaware.
Meta’s Australian arm was contacted for comment. It comes as the company reports first-quarter US earnings this week alongside Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple – five firms that collectively account for nearly a quarter of the S&P 500’s weighting.
Josh Gilbert, eToro’s lead analyst for the Asia-Pacific region, said the advertising engine was the key to whether investors would tolerate Meta’s ballooning AI spending.
“Meta’s story is the simplest of the five, with its dominant ad business funding its AI future,” Gilbert said. “Zuckerberg has earned more rope than most on AI spending because the ad business keeps delivering, but the market will want to see AI monetisation compounding, not stalling.”
AP
It also comes as Meta’s chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth told staff the company would ramp up internal data collection under a program rebranded as the “Agent Transformation Accelerator”. It envisages a future where AI agents would perform the bulk of work while employees direct, review and improve them.
According to a Reuters report, A separate tool called the Model Capability Initiative captures how employees interact with their computers – dropdown menus, keyboard shortcuts, screen content – to train models where they struggle to replicate human behaviour. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the data would not be used for performance assessments.
Meta is planning to lay off 10 per cent of its global workforce starting on May 20 as it ramps up AI spending. In Australia, headcount ticked up marginally from 125 to 128 staff from 2024 to 2025, though the company has shed nearly 20 per cent of its local workforce since 2022 while growing revenue by hundreds of millions.
Legislation for Australia’s News Media Bargaining Incentive is expected this week. Under the charge-and-offset scheme, platforms with more than $250 million in annual revenue would pay about 1.5 per cent to news publishers, or face a 2.25 per cent charge if they refuse.
Meta walked away from its Australian news deals in March 2024, arguing news content held little value. The incoming scheme closes the loophole in the original code that allowed platforms to sidestep obligations by removing news, with the charge applying regardless. The government has suggested the charge could be about 2.25 per cent of a company’s revenue.
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David Swan is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X or email.