Meta vs Pinterest: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Meta reported $201B of revenue in FY2025 and $60.5B of net income. Pinterest reported $4.2B of revenue in FY2025 and $416.9M of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
Meta
Meta's revenue grew from $116.609B in 2022 to $200.966B in 2025, and net income rose from $23.2B to $60.458B. FY2025 income from operations was $83.276B. In 2026 the story is spending: Q2 2026 costs rose 55% to $42.03B, the operating margin fell to 31% from 43%, and quarterly capex of $31.08B left free cash flow at $784M. Meta had $90.26B of cash and marketable securities and $83.66B of long-term debt at June 30, 2026. It expects 2026 total expenses of $165-169B and still expects 2026 operating income to exceed 2025.
Pinterest grew revenue from $1.69 billion in 2020 to $4.22 billion in 2025. After losses in 2022 and 2023, it posted GAAP net income of $1.86 billion in 2024 (lifted by a one-time deferred tax benefit) and $417 million in 2025. Cash generation is strong: 2025 Adjusted EBITDA was $1.27 billion and free cash flow $1.25 billion. 2026 has been mixed. Q1 revenue rose 18% to $1.01 billion but it posted a $74 million GAAP net loss; Q2 revenue rose 18% to $1.18 billion with a $47 million GAAP loss and $311 million of Adjusted EBITDA. Management lifted its full-year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA margin outlook to about 30%, guided Q3 revenue to $1.19-$1.21 billion and repurchased more than $2 billion of stock in the first half.
Revenue and profit by year
Meta
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $201B | $60.5B | 30.1% | +22.2% | Source |
| FY2024 | $164.5B | $62.4B | 37.9% | +21.9% | Source |
| FY2023 | $134.9B | $39.1B | 29.0% | +15.7% | Source |
| FY2022 | $116.6B | $23.2B | 19.9% | -1.1% | Source |
| FY2021 | $117.9B | $39.4B | 33.4% | +37.2% | Source |
| FY2020 | $86B | $29.1B | 33.9% | +21.6% | Source |
| FY2019 | $70.7B | $18.5B | 26.1% | +26.6% | Source |
| FY2018 | $55.8B | $22.1B | 39.6% | +37.4% | Source |
| FY2017 | $40.7B | $15.9B | 39.2% | +47.1% | Source |
| FY2016 | $27.6B | $10.2B | 37.0% | — | Source |
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $4.2B | $416.9M | 9.9% | +15.8% | Source |
| FY2024 | $3.6B | $1.9B | 51.1% | +19.3% | Source |
| FY2023 | $3.1B | -$35.6M | -1.2% | +9.0% | Source |
| FY2022 | $2.8B | -$96M | -3.4% | +8.7% | Source |
| FY2021 | $2.6B | $316.4M | 12.3% | +52.3% | Source |
| FY2020 | $1.7B | -$128.3M | -7.6% | +48.1% | Source |
| FY2019 | $1.1B | -$1.4B | -119.1% | +51.2% | Source |
| FY2018 | $755.9M | -$63M | -8.3% | +59.9% | Source |
| FY2017 | $472.9M | -$130M | -27.5% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Meta
- Advertising
~97.6% (FY2025)
Ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads and WhatsApp; $196.175B in FY2025.
- Other revenue and Reality Labs
~2.4% (FY2025)
WhatsApp Business messaging, Meta Verified subscriptions, Quest headsets and Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
- US & Canada Advertising75
About $880 million of Q2 2026 revenue; the most monetized region.
- Europe Advertising18
$213 million in Q2 2026, up 12% year over year.
- Rest of World Advertising7
$87 million in Q2 2026, up 38%, helped by third-party demand partners.
Business model and strategy
Meta
How it makes money
Meta makes money by selling ads. Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads are free to use, and advertisers pay to reach people in feeds, Stories, Reels and click-to-message formats. Advertising produced $196.175B of Meta's $200.966B FY2025 revenue, about 97.6%. Q2 2026 growth came from 14% more ad impressions and a 12% higher average price per ad.
Growth strategy
Meta's growth plan runs through AI. Better ranking and ad-delivery models raise engagement on Reels and feeds and lift ad prices, which drove the 28% revenue growth in Q2 2026. Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, released the first Muse Spark model in April 2026, followed by a paid API and the Muse consumer AI agent in September 2026.
Competitive advantage
Meta's moat is distribution plus data. Its apps reach 3.60 billion people every day, so new products such as Threads, Meta AI and Muse can launch to a huge audience at once. Advertisers stay because Meta's AI ad tools such as Advantage+ convert across that audience at a scale only Google matches. Meta also owns its compute, custom MTIA chips and frontier models, which reduces its dependence on outside AI suppliers.
How it makes money
Pinterest makes money by selling ads. The app is free; brands and retailers pay to place Promoted Pins, video, carousel, collections and shopping ads in the home feed, search results and related Pins. Most spend is performance-oriented: merchants upload product catalogs, and Pinterest turns them into shoppable Product Pins billed when users click or convert.
Growth strategy
Under Bill Ready, Pinterest is pursuing three levers: make every Pin more shoppable, automate advertising with AI (Performance+ campaigns, generative creative tools and the Pinterest Assistant shopping agent), and raise revenue per user outside North America through direct sales and third-party demand from Amazon and Google.
Competitive advantage
Pinterest's edge is intent. Users come to plan a kitchen, an outfit or a wedding, and most searches are unbranded, so advertisers reach people before they have chosen a product. More than a decade of users sorting images into boards gives Pinterest a large human-labelled dataset for visual search and recommendations, and its positive, largely apolitical feed is attractive to brand-safety-conscious advertisers.
Questions about Meta vs Pinterest
Which company has higher revenue — Meta Platforms, Inc. or Pinterest, Inc.?
Meta Platforms, Inc. reported $201.0B (FY2025), while Pinterest, Inc. reported $4.2B (FY2025). By last reported revenue, Meta Platforms, Inc. is the larger business, with Pinterest, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base.
What is the market cap of Meta Platforms, Inc. vs Pinterest, Inc.?
Meta Platforms, Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $1.90T, while Pinterest, Inc.'s is $10.5B. Meta Platforms, Inc. carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Pinterest, Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — Meta Platforms, Inc. or Pinterest, Inc.?
Meta Platforms, Inc. generates $2.66M / employee in revenue per employee, while Pinterest, Inc. generates $802k / employee. Meta Platforms, Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Meta Platforms, Inc. and Pinterest, Inc. make money?
Meta Platforms, Inc. and Pinterest, Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Meta Platforms, Inc.: Meta makes money by selling ads. Pinterest, Inc.: Pinterest makes money by selling ads.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Meta Platforms, Inc. or Pinterest, Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Meta Platforms, Inc. trades at 9.5x P/S and Pinterest, Inc. at 2.5x P/S. Meta Platforms, Inc. commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Pinterest, Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is Meta Platforms, Inc. bigger than Pinterest, Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Meta Platforms, Inc. ($201.0B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to Pinterest, Inc. ($4.2B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Meta vs Pinterest overview