Facebook: A quarter of the world's people used the internet every day in December

The number of people using Facebook daily increased to an estimated two billion in December - almost a quarter of the world's population.

The stronger-than-expected growth helped bring renewed optimism about the company, which has been under pressure as costs rose following a slump in business sales.

Shares in parent company Meta rose more than 15% in after-hours trading as boss Mark Zuckerberg declared 2023 to be a "year of success".

He said he focused on reducing costs.

"We're in a different environment now," he said, pointing to the company's earnings, which declined in 2022 for the first time in its history after years of double-digit growth.

"We don't expect that to continue, but I also don't think it will go back to what it was before."

Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, announced major restructuring last year, including reducing office space and cutting 11,000 jobs, or about 13% of the workforce.

The company said those measures cost $4.6 billion last year. In 2022 it made a profit of $23.2bn per year.

"2022 was a challenging year but I think we ended it with good progress," Mr Zuckerberg said.

Meta worried investors last year when it posted the first daily decline in Facebook users in its history and signaled it was targeting investments in virtual reality, known as the metaverse.

But in December, the number of users on the network every day increased by 4% from the previous year, adding users even in Europe and the United States and Canada.