Berlin, 28 July 2022 (dpa/MIA) - Facebook parent company Meta posted a revenue decline for the first time on Wednesday in its latest quarterly report. It marks the end of an era for Facebook, which has consistently reported rises since its IPO in 2012. Its projections for the coming months didn't show any sign of improvement, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the firm planned to focus on the long-term view. Meta's revenue dropped in the second quarter by around 1% to $28.8 billion dollars. Profits declined by 27% to around $6.7 billion. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said the strength of the US dollar provided unfavourable exchange rates for foreign revenue. She said in a telephone conference with analysts that revenue would have increased by 3% without a rise in the dollar exchange rate. The prognosis for the coming quarter, with a range of $26-28.5 billion, was lower than analysts expected. Finance chief Dave Wehner pointed to a slowdown in the online advertising market amid economic uncertainty as a reason for the decline. Investors sent the stock plunging 4.65% in after-hours trading Wednesday. Facebook and Meta have so far been resilient amid various economic downturns, largely because their knowledge of the interests and social connections of billions of users meant its advertisers could target ads to specific audiences. But new privacy rules introduced by Apple last year put the model under strain, as developers like Facebook now have to ask iPhone users for permission to track behaviour across apps and services - and many refused. But Facebook's influence still remains huge, with the number of users accessing at least one of the group's apps every day rising from 2.87 billion to 2.88 billion within three months. Facebook's daily users increased from 1.96 to 1.97 billion. The group also owns other apps including WhatsApp and Instagram.