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Facebook Loses Users For The First Time EverBy Tyler Lee, on 02/03/2022
Facebook has been around for a very long time now, but what you might not have realized is that over the years, the company’s user base has only grown, at least until now where it appears that for the first time ever, Facebook has experienced its first-ever loss in daily active users.
According to Facebook’s Q4 earnings report, the company revealed that it had about 1.929 billion daily active users. This is versus the 1.93 billion that they had recorded in the previous quarter. Sure, the drop in users is marginal, but like we said, this is the first time this has happened to the social media platform.
That being said, realistically we expect that throughout the days, weeks, and months, Facebook probably loses and gains users, but for the most part the company has gained more than they have lost. According to Facebook’s parent company Meta, “Any future declines in the size of our active user base may adversely impact our ability to deliver ad impressions and, in turn, our financial performance.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean that Facebook is in trouble, but rather it would suggest that maybe they have run out of people around the world to add to their service. While 1.929 billion is only about a quarter of the world’s population, keep in mind that not everyone in the world wants or needs to use Facebook, plus there are countries such as China, home to 1.4 billion people, where Facebook is banned.
According to Facebook’s Q4 earnings report, the company revealed that it had about 1.929 billion daily active users. This is versus the 1.93 billion that they had recorded in the previous quarter. Sure, the drop in users is marginal, but like we said, this is the first time this has happened to the social media platform.
That being said, realistically we expect that throughout the days, weeks, and months, Facebook probably loses and gains users, but for the most part the company has gained more than they have lost. According to Facebook’s parent company Meta, “Any future declines in the size of our active user base may adversely impact our ability to deliver ad impressions and, in turn, our financial performance.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean that Facebook is in trouble, but rather it would suggest that maybe they have run out of people around the world to add to their service. While 1.929 billion is only about a quarter of the world’s population, keep in mind that not everyone in the world wants or needs to use Facebook, plus there are countries such as China, home to 1.4 billion people, where Facebook is banned.
It's the beginning of the end of Facebook
February 3, 2022
Image: Roman Martyniuk/Unsplash
Good morning! Facebook is shrinking for the first time, and the news sent its stock prices tumbling after hours. It wasn’t the only stock that cratered yesterday, either.
Down and to the right
Facebook is dying. The signs have been out there for a while, of course: slowing growth around the world, an increased focus on Instagram and WhatsApp and Messenger and then a hard pivot toward the metaverse, including a whole-ass name change so that Meta's potential might not be brought down by Facebook. But all we saw until now was slow growth, not decline.
Facebook users have now declined for the first time ever, Meta announced on its earnings call yesterday. The numbers are still ludicrous, obviously — 1.929 billion people still log on to the Facebook app every day, and Meta turned nearly $40 billion in profit last year, so don't pour one out for the blue app just yet — but the number is down about a half a million users from the previous three months.
Meta's overall product portfolio — which includes WhatsApp and Instagram — was up a hair, to 2.82 billion per day. But it's pretty clear that after nearly two decades of literally unprecedented growth, Facebook's flagship app has plateaued.
The largest culprit is almost certainly that there just aren't enough people in the world for Facebook to grow forever. No wonder Mark Zuckerberg is so interested in appealing to youths.
Meta's stock has dropped about 20% since the earnings call. Big price swings have come for Meta before, but this one's particularly problematic: Zuckerberg needs time, money and patience to pull off his metaverse play, and he may not have as much of any of the three as he thought.
Facebook is playing with both hands tied behind its back right now. TikTok is a formidable competitor, but Facebook can't even buy a GIF company without getting antitrust scrutiny. Apple's privacy moves continue to hurt, too: “The accuracy of our ads targeting decreased, which increased the cost of driving outcomes,” Sheryl Sandberg said on the earnings call, and Zuckerberg added that the company has had to rebuild "a lot of our ads infrastructure." Ultimately, CFO Dave Wehner said, that could cost the company about $10 billion in lost revenue — which is about as much as Meta lost on all its metaverse projects last year.
Reels is the bright spot, at least until the metaverse becomes a thing. Zuckerberg underscored how important Reels is to the company as it tries to take on TikTok, and called it "our fastest-growing content format by far."
That's the other shift that's becoming clear: While Meta shifts to the metaverse, its social apps are becoming entertainment apps. Adam Mosseri said as much last year, but the change is already upon us.
Meta has been the most interesting company in earnings season so far. The sun rises, Big Tech makes money. But here are a few things we've learned from the other companies reporting:
Google's ad business is doing just fine. Some think it's actually benefiting from Apple's privacy push, as advertisers look for a new way to reach and target people. In general, there are few companies better positioned than Alphabet — which is increasingly vertically integrated, controls multiple massive properties and holds vast quantities of first-party data — for the next few years.
TikTok is the future of everything. Sundar Pichai said that Shorts is growing fast, even as YouTube's momentum fell short of expectations (partly thanks to TikTok). If you're not in the vertical-video game, you're apparently nowhere.
Streaming services may be headed for a slowdown. Netflix's subscriber growth has slowed recently, as has Spotify's. Both may be running up against the same sort of total-addressable-market ceiling Facebook is, and they won't be the only ones.
Supply chain problems hurt everyone, but the chip shortage continues to be good to chip companies. Qualcomm had a big quarter, as did AMD, and both predicted even better things to come. And Apple, which definitely counts as a chip company at this point, was optimistic as well.
Absolutely everybody is in the creator business now. You can hardly tune in to an earnings call without a CEO talking about how they're building tools for creators, helping creators monetize, giving creators new ways to make content. Why? Because creators bring audiences more reliably and cheaply than any other mechanism. If you're in the content biz, it's as simple as that.
This year, it seems, is going to be a year full of transition. The ad market continues to change; the supply chain should improve eventually; the digital transformations of so many industries continue apace; regulation is coming; the (hopefully, please, seriously) end of the pandemic will bring a sweep of change in everyone's lives. Even the biggest companies won't be immune to the change. But all that money they keep making will surely help.
— David Pierce (email | twitter)
Image: Roman Martyniuk/Unsplash
Good morning! Facebook is shrinking for the first time, and the news sent its stock prices tumbling after hours. It wasn’t the only stock that cratered yesterday, either.
Down and to the right
Facebook is dying. The signs have been out there for a while, of course: slowing growth around the world, an increased focus on Instagram and WhatsApp and Messenger and then a hard pivot toward the metaverse, including a whole-ass name change so that Meta's potential might not be brought down by Facebook. But all we saw until now was slow growth, not decline.
Facebook users have now declined for the first time ever, Meta announced on its earnings call yesterday. The numbers are still ludicrous, obviously — 1.929 billion people still log on to the Facebook app every day, and Meta turned nearly $40 billion in profit last year, so don't pour one out for the blue app just yet — but the number is down about a half a million users from the previous three months.
Meta's overall product portfolio — which includes WhatsApp and Instagram — was up a hair, to 2.82 billion per day. But it's pretty clear that after nearly two decades of literally unprecedented growth, Facebook's flagship app has plateaued.
The largest culprit is almost certainly that there just aren't enough people in the world for Facebook to grow forever. No wonder Mark Zuckerberg is so interested in appealing to youths.
Meta's stock has dropped about 20% since the earnings call. Big price swings have come for Meta before, but this one's particularly problematic: Zuckerberg needs time, money and patience to pull off his metaverse play, and he may not have as much of any of the three as he thought.
Facebook is playing with both hands tied behind its back right now. TikTok is a formidable competitor, but Facebook can't even buy a GIF company without getting antitrust scrutiny. Apple's privacy moves continue to hurt, too: “The accuracy of our ads targeting decreased, which increased the cost of driving outcomes,” Sheryl Sandberg said on the earnings call, and Zuckerberg added that the company has had to rebuild "a lot of our ads infrastructure." Ultimately, CFO Dave Wehner said, that could cost the company about $10 billion in lost revenue — which is about as much as Meta lost on all its metaverse projects last year.
Reels is the bright spot, at least until the metaverse becomes a thing. Zuckerberg underscored how important Reels is to the company as it tries to take on TikTok, and called it "our fastest-growing content format by far."
That's the other shift that's becoming clear: While Meta shifts to the metaverse, its social apps are becoming entertainment apps. Adam Mosseri said as much last year, but the change is already upon us.
Meta has been the most interesting company in earnings season so far. The sun rises, Big Tech makes money. But here are a few things we've learned from the other companies reporting:
Google's ad business is doing just fine. Some think it's actually benefiting from Apple's privacy push, as advertisers look for a new way to reach and target people. In general, there are few companies better positioned than Alphabet — which is increasingly vertically integrated, controls multiple massive properties and holds vast quantities of first-party data — for the next few years.
TikTok is the future of everything. Sundar Pichai said that Shorts is growing fast, even as YouTube's momentum fell short of expectations (partly thanks to TikTok). If you're not in the vertical-video game, you're apparently nowhere.
Streaming services may be headed for a slowdown. Netflix's subscriber growth has slowed recently, as has Spotify's. Both may be running up against the same sort of total-addressable-market ceiling Facebook is, and they won't be the only ones.
Spotify led its earnings call with the Joe Rogan controversy, in case you're wondering whether Spotify's actually worried about the blowback there.
Supply chain problems hurt everyone, but the chip shortage continues to be good to chip companies. Qualcomm had a big quarter, as did AMD, and both predicted even better things to come. And Apple, which definitely counts as a chip company at this point, was optimistic as well.
Absolutely everybody is in the creator business now. You can hardly tune in to an earnings call without a CEO talking about how they're building tools for creators, helping creators monetize, giving creators new ways to make content. Why? Because creators bring audiences more reliably and cheaply than any other mechanism. If you're in the content biz, it's as simple as that.
This year, it seems, is going to be a year full of transition. The ad market continues to change; the supply chain should improve eventually; the digital transformations of so many industries continue apace; regulation is coming; the (hopefully, please, seriously) end of the pandemic will bring a sweep of change in everyone's lives. Even the biggest companies won't be immune to the change. But all that money they keep making will surely help.
— David Pierce (email | twitter)
$230 billion? Facebook's stock plunge brings big losses for Mark Zuckerberg,
Meta – and maybe you
Shares of the social media giant were down more than 26% Thursday.
The New York State Common Retirement Fund lost $470 million.
The California Public Employees Retirement System lost $440 million.
Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms, just did a face plant on Wall Street.
Shares of the social media giant were down more than 26% Thursday, the first day of trading after Meta reported a decline in profit and users during the last three months of 2021 – and most tellingly, forecast revenue declines in the current quarter.
Meta's market value fell more than $230 billion to a market capitalization of about $661 billion. The company's market cap had been $898.5 billion early Thursday.
The loss is the largest one-day decline in U.S. history, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Last summer, when the company was still known as Facebook, the company became only the fifth U.S. company to achieve a market value surpassing $1 trillion – the others being Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet.
STOCKS SLIDE: Facebook parent company Meta plunges, other tech stocks also stumble
FACEBOOK: Network is losing users for the first time ever and shares in Meta have fallen off a cliff
Meta Platforms' shares closed Thursday at $237.76, down about 26%. The stock price was up more than 1% in aftermarket trading to $240.60.
Shares of Meta, which will change its trading symbol on Nasdaq from "FB" to "META" in the first half of this year, are down nearly 30% so far this year.
Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally lost nearly $32 billion Zuckerberg is the largest individual Meta shareholder, with more than 374.8 million shares, or about 12.5% of total shares outstanding, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Zuckerberg's shares had been valued at $121 billion before the market opened Thursday. When the markets closed, his holdings were worth $89.1 billion.
Zuckerberg, who has been No. 7 on Bloomberg's Billionaires, had already seen a decline of $4.9 billion in 2022.
Meta stock plummets, what some lost
Many of the top Meta shareholders who took losses, too, on Thursday will be familiar as many Americans have investments including 401(k) plans with them:
The Vanguard Group, which holds 182.9 million shares, , saw its value drop to about $43.5 billion from $59 billion.
BlackRock (nearly 155.9 million shares): down to $37.1 billion from about $50.4 billion.
Capital Research and Management Co. (Capitol Group/American Funds; nearly 137 million shares): about $44.3 billion from about $32.6 billion
FMR LLC (Fidelity Investments; 123.8 million shares): about $29.4 billion from about $40 billion.
UBS Asset Management (20 million shares): about $4.8 billion from about $6.5 billion.
Fisher Investments (7.6 million shares): about $1.8 billion from about $2.5 billion
California Public Employees Retirement System (5.7 million): $1.36 billion from $1.8 billion.
New York State Common Retirement Fund (5.47 million): $1.3 billion from $1.77 billion.
Sheryl Sandberg, Meta COO (1.42 million shares): $337.6 million from $458.7 million.
North Carolina Department of State Treasurer (1 million): 237.8 million from $323 million.
Marc Andreessen, Meta independent director (44,434 shares): $10.6 million from $14.4 million.
Peter Thiel, Meta independent director (12,947 shares): $3 million from $4.2 million.
Facebook faces 'unprecedented' competition
During Wednesday's earnings report, Meta reported that Facebook's daily active users had fallen for the first time: 1.929 billion daily active users compared to 1.93 billion in the previous quarter.
Zuckerberg said competition from other social media platforms including viral video-sharing app Tiktok is "having an impact on our business."
Zuckerberg echoed that sentiment during an all-hands virtual meeting, saying the company faced an “unprecedented level of competition," Bloomberg reported, citing a person who attended but was not authorized to speak publicly about it,
He also said the company's weak revenue forecast for the current quarter triggered the historic stock decline, Bloomberg reported.
That forecast of slowed revenue growth "was a headline grabber and not in a good way," wrote Michael Nathanson of investment research firm MoffettNathanson in a note to investors Thursday
Mike Snider
USA TODAY
USA TODAY
 |
| REAL OR AVATAR? |
Shares of the social media giant were down more than 26% Thursday.
The New York State Common Retirement Fund lost $470 million.
The California Public Employees Retirement System lost $440 million.
Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms, just did a face plant on Wall Street.
Shares of the social media giant were down more than 26% Thursday, the first day of trading after Meta reported a decline in profit and users during the last three months of 2021 – and most tellingly, forecast revenue declines in the current quarter.
Meta's market value fell more than $230 billion to a market capitalization of about $661 billion. The company's market cap had been $898.5 billion early Thursday.
The loss is the largest one-day decline in U.S. history, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Last summer, when the company was still known as Facebook, the company became only the fifth U.S. company to achieve a market value surpassing $1 trillion – the others being Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet.
STOCKS SLIDE: Facebook parent company Meta plunges, other tech stocks also stumble
FACEBOOK: Network is losing users for the first time ever and shares in Meta have fallen off a cliff
Meta Platforms' shares closed Thursday at $237.76, down about 26%. The stock price was up more than 1% in aftermarket trading to $240.60.
Shares of Meta, which will change its trading symbol on Nasdaq from "FB" to "META" in the first half of this year, are down nearly 30% so far this year.
Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally lost nearly $32 billion Zuckerberg is the largest individual Meta shareholder, with more than 374.8 million shares, or about 12.5% of total shares outstanding, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Zuckerberg's shares had been valued at $121 billion before the market opened Thursday. When the markets closed, his holdings were worth $89.1 billion.
Zuckerberg, who has been No. 7 on Bloomberg's Billionaires, had already seen a decline of $4.9 billion in 2022.
Meta stock plummets, what some lost
Many of the top Meta shareholders who took losses, too, on Thursday will be familiar as many Americans have investments including 401(k) plans with them:
The Vanguard Group, which holds 182.9 million shares, , saw its value drop to about $43.5 billion from $59 billion.
BlackRock (nearly 155.9 million shares): down to $37.1 billion from about $50.4 billion.
Capital Research and Management Co. (Capitol Group/American Funds; nearly 137 million shares): about $44.3 billion from about $32.6 billion
FMR LLC (Fidelity Investments; 123.8 million shares): about $29.4 billion from about $40 billion.
UBS Asset Management (20 million shares): about $4.8 billion from about $6.5 billion.
Fisher Investments (7.6 million shares): about $1.8 billion from about $2.5 billion
California Public Employees Retirement System (5.7 million): $1.36 billion from $1.8 billion.
New York State Common Retirement Fund (5.47 million): $1.3 billion from $1.77 billion.
Sheryl Sandberg, Meta COO (1.42 million shares): $337.6 million from $458.7 million.
North Carolina Department of State Treasurer (1 million): 237.8 million from $323 million.
Marc Andreessen, Meta independent director (44,434 shares): $10.6 million from $14.4 million.
Peter Thiel, Meta independent director (12,947 shares): $3 million from $4.2 million.
Facebook faces 'unprecedented' competition
During Wednesday's earnings report, Meta reported that Facebook's daily active users had fallen for the first time: 1.929 billion daily active users compared to 1.93 billion in the previous quarter.
Zuckerberg said competition from other social media platforms including viral video-sharing app Tiktok is "having an impact on our business."
Zuckerberg echoed that sentiment during an all-hands virtual meeting, saying the company faced an “unprecedented level of competition," Bloomberg reported, citing a person who attended but was not authorized to speak publicly about it,
He also said the company's weak revenue forecast for the current quarter triggered the historic stock decline, Bloomberg reported.
That forecast of slowed revenue growth "was a headline grabber and not in a good way," wrote Michael Nathanson of investment research firm MoffettNathanson in a note to investors Thursday
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