For the first time in its history, Facebook is losing one million users per day.
How do you feel when you wake up and see that some people have unfollowed you? We could ask Mark Zuckerberg the same question. Half a million people stopped using their Facebook accounts by the end of 2021. A decline in growth, along with advertising revenue, led to the platform's stock price falling by up to 20%, representing an estimated loss of $200 billion in market value.
Despite that, Facebook It has 1.929 billion daily active users worldwide, making it the most popular digital platform in the world.
The stock market decline is undoubtedly a major concern for the company's investors due to the stagnation of its main business: social media advertising . Facebook lost up to a million daily users in the United States, where it generates the most advertising revenue .
What is the reason for the loss of users?
Mark Zuckerberg, the company's president, explained that the company's sales growth was affected because audiences, especially younger users, went to rival platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
“We believe that competitive services are negatively impacting growth, particularly with younger audiences,” said Meta CFO Dave Wehner.
He also emphasized that Facebook was affected by the privacy changes in Apple's iOS operating system. This has made it more difficult for brands to use detailed targeting options and measure their advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
Wehner estimates that this could have an impact of at least $10 billion on the company's sales for this year, 2022.
Although Meta's total revenue increased to $33.67 billion, slightly exceeding market predictions , total revenue for the next quarter is expected to fluctuate between $27 billion and $29 billion, a lower figure than analysts predicted.
Competition with other social networks
Although the Meta platform created its own versions of short videos to compete with TikTok, it is earning less from these formats than from traditional posts on Facebook and Instagram.
However, Zuckerberg is betting that the investments in video and virtual reality will pay off.
“The teams are performing quite well and the product is growing very rapidly. What’s unique here is that TikTok is already such a large competitor and is also continuing to grow at a fairly rapid pace,” he explained.
Bets on the Metaverse
Since Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta and its vision for the Metaverse last October, many companies have begun sharing their own plans for the metaverse and how they could incorporate virtual reality experiences into their products and services. "I look forward to partnering with many of them," said Meta's CEO during the presentation of the company's results and strategies.
He added that for this year, they have seven main investment priorities. These are: Reels, community messaging, commerce, advertising, privacy, artificial intelligence, and the Metaverse.
“Making significant progress in all seven areas will improve the services we offer today and help drive a more social, intuitive, and entertaining metaverse where people, businesses, and creators can thrive,” he said.
He pointed out that although the vision is fully realized, the path forward is not yet completely defined. He is confident that these are the right investments to move the company forward.