Revenues at the Dublin-based international headquarters for the operator of Facebook and Instagram last year surged by 22% or €15.54 billion to €85.29 billion in a record performance for the business.
New accounts show that on the back of the average weekly revenues of €1.64 billion for 2024, pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of social media giant, Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd increased by 57% from €1.85 billion to €2.9 billion.
The revenues recorded by the Dublin based unit account for 60% of the US headquartered Meta's global revenues of $164.5 billion (€142 billion) for 2024.
The directors for the Irish arm state that "substantially all revenue is generated from advertising, which has continued to grow during the year".
They state that the revenue increase "was attributable to growth in advertising revenue from third-party customers generated by displaying ad products on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and third-party mobile applications".
The firm recorded a post tax profit of €2.54 billion for 2024 after incurring a corporation tax charge of €366.8m.
The accounts disclose that during the year, the company paid a dividend of €1.5 billion to parent company, Facebook International Operations Ltd.
The directors disclose that in 2025, the board has approved further dividends of €1.9 billion to its parent.
The directors state that headcount last year reduced by 20% and this followed a reduction of 18% in the workforce during 2023.
Last year, numbers employed reduced by 433 from 2,171 to 1,738.
The €453.9m in staff costs included €116.5m in share based payments.
The accounts show that €257.15m was paid out in salaries which equates to an average salary of €147,959 before shared based payments of €116.5m and "other benefits" of €40.35m are taken into account.
A breakdown of the roles show 570 employed in operations, 499 in administration, 369 in sales and marketing and 300 in engineering.
Pay to directors reduced by €400,000 to €2.3m along with €9.6m under long term incentive schemes benefits.
At the start of 2024, the firm had set aside €4.15 billion to deal with potential regulatory fines and €1 billion was released during the year to deal with fines.
The company's Research and Development (R&D) costs last year increased from €155.43m to €186.3m. The profit also takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €66.92m and foreign exchange loss of €181.5m.
The company's operating profits last year increased by 51% from €1.88 billion to €2.86 billion after administrative expenses of €79.32 billion and cost of sales of €3.1 billion are taken into account.
Net interest payments received of €43.25m increased profits to a pre-tax profit of €2.9 billion.
The dividend payout offset by the post tax profits last year resulted in accumulated profits increasing from €891m to €2.59 billion.
Shareholder funds totalled €2.7 billion while cash funds dipped from €5.89 billion to €5.14 billion.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
