Headline Roundup • February 3rd, 2022
Meta Stock Sinks as Facebook Loses Users for the First Time
Business,Technology,Facebook,Meta,Metaverse,Mark Zuckerberg,Wall Street,Stock Market,Social Media,TikTok,Instagram,WhatsApp
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Facebook’s daily active users fell for the first time in its 18-year history, according to parent company Meta's quarterly earnings report released Wednesday evening.
Daily active users fell from 1.93 billion to 1.929 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Notably, Meta’s press release rounded these numbers to the second decimal, making both appear to be “1.93.” Along with weaker revenue forecasts, the news led Meta’s stock value to drop over 26% on Thursday. As a result, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth fell by about $29 billion. Zuckerberg attributed the drop in users to fast-growing competitors like TikTok, calling the situation “somewhat unique.” The earnings report also comes after multiple national and international controversies, including whistleblower Frances Haugen’s release of internal company documents.
Coverage was common across the spectrum, particularly in technology and business outlets. Most coverage focused on the drop in users or Meta’s stock price. Fox Business (Lean Right) was somewhat unique in covering Meta’s reported year-over-year 5% increase in daily active users instead of the quarterly decline; CNN Business (Lean Left) also placed less emphasis on users, although it did mention the decline in users.
Featured Coverage of this Story
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta saw $200 billion of its market value vanish into thin air late Wednesday and early Thursday, showing that slowing user growth is more dangerous to Mark Zuckerberg’s social media colossus than any whistleblower.
Meta shares were changing hands at $248.00 in pre-market trading early Thursday — about 23% lower than Wednesday’s closing price of $323.00.
The corresponding $200 billion hole in Meta’s market value amounts to the largest one-day wipeout of a single company’s value in history.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Since its inception, Facebook’s user growth has essentially been up and to the right. But on Wednesday, it reported its first-ever quarterly decline of daily users globally, along with lower-than-expected ad growth that sent its stock plunging roughly 20 percent.
The massive stock drop, which instantly wiped out roughly $200 billion in market value, shows that Facebook’s corporate rebrand to Meta isn’t enough to distract investors from the problems in its core business of social media. Not only was user growth across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp essentially flat last quarter, but the...
EPA
Social media giant Facebook has seen its daily active users (DAUs) drop for the first time in its 18-year history.
Facebook's parent company Meta Networks says DAUs fell to 1.929bn in the three months to the end of December, compared to 1.930bn in the previous quarter.
The firm also warned of slowing revenue growth in the face of competition from rivals like TikTok and YouTube, while advertisers are also cutting spending.
Meta's shares slumped by more than 20% in after-hours trading in New York.
The slide in Meta's share price...
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