For the first time in 18-year history, Daily Active Users of Facebook fell sharply
Meta Networks, the parent company of Facebook said that the daily active users fell to 1.92billion in the three months to the end of December, compared to 1.920billion in the previous quarter.
They confirmed that there was a hit in the revenue growth as tech rivals TikTok and YouTube were providing stiff competition. Meanwhile, advertisers are also minimizing their spending.
Meta Network’s shares came down by more than 20% in after-hours trading in New York.
More than 200 billion$ was wiped off the company’s stock value.
Other social media platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest also fell sharply.
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of the company confirmed that the sales growth had been hurt as audiences, especially young users, had opted for their rivals.
The owner of the world’s second-largest digital advertising platform after Google, Meta also said that it had been hit on Apple’s operating system for privacy changes.
According to Meta’s chief financial officer Dave Wehner, the changes have made it, even more, harder for brands to target and measure their advertising on the platforms of Facebook and Instagram and can have an impact ‘in the order of 10 billion $’ for this year.
In the time, Meta’s overall revenue, which is primarily made up of advertising sales, increased to $33.67 billion, narrowly exceeding market expectations.
It also predicted sales of $27 billion to $29 billion for the coming quarter, which is lower than predicted.
While the firm has made its own video investments to compete with TikTok, which is controlled by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, the corporation makes less money from these products than it does from its standard Facebook and Instagram feeds.
Zuckerberg expressed confidence that the investments in video and virtual reality, like past bets on mobile advertising and Instagram stories, would pay off.
However, he pointed out that throughout past strategy revisions, the company did not have to compete with a large competitor.
Zuckerberg said, “The teams are executing quite well and the product is growing very quickly,” he said. “The thing that is somewhat unique here is that TikTok is so big a competitor already and also continues to grow at quite a fast rate.”
Facebook is not as popular among teenagers as it once was. TikTok is snatching some business away from Facebook.
Investors are concerned about Meta for a variety of reasons.
For focusing more, Meta changed their name to Metaverse, but Meta is not even close to creating a Metaverse.
Instead, it is pouring billions of dollars into trying to build one, all because Mark Zuckerberg believes there is a market for it.
Although buying TikTok would solve Meta’s immediate problems, but due to the anti-competition regulations, US officials would never allow it.
In addition, many in Silicon Valley now regard Facebook as a poisonous brand. It is not the same kind of cool place to work as it was, say, ten years ago.
Meta is going to have some big issues in the future. This might be the start of something bigger.
Glenda Bozeman – Business and Services
Glenda Bozeman writes Business articles for industries that want to see their Google search rankings surge. Her articles have appeared in a number of sites. Her articles focus on enlightening with informative Services sector needs. She holds the degree of Masters in Business and Marketing. Before she started writing, she experimented with various professions: computer programming, assistant marker, and others. But her favorite job is writing that she is now doing full-time.
