Though at times it seemed unlikely this day would ever come , the Facebook geological era of unrelenting drug user growth has lastly hail to an end . For the first time in its nearly 18 - year - history , Facebook ’s users have actually pass up .
harmonise to parent company Meta ’s Q4earnings presentation , Facebook fall behind around a million user between Q3 and Q4 2021 . Specifically , the platform describe 1.93 billion daily active drug user in Q3 , though that figure dropped to 1.929 billion last after part . This marks a sea change for a company previously able to wear an onslaught ofscandals , suit , racial extermination enabling policies , and gut - wrenchinglyuncomfortableCongressional hearing , all without losing its most worthful resource : us , the faithful users .
Markets were quick to react . Those declining users , in tandem weaker than expected ad growth , sent Meta ’s stock priceplummetingdown by more than 25 % on Thursday .
Image: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)
Facebook ’s armory of eyeballs has wavered for some metre now , with substance abuser growth last year slow to atricklecompared to the company ’s glory days . Those figure talk to a tumid , more pressing issue anyone spend time on social media inherently knows — Facebook hasstruggledto draw in or keep younger users .
It ’s not just Facebook facing problems either . Instagram , one of Meta ’s other traditional hotbeds of user increase , hasreportedlyseen its well of untried grownup user begin to dry out up . In that case , the platform had hoped to solve this Book of Exodus by creating a new version of the app aimed at careen in youthful baby , but that has confront tight pushback from kid safetyadvocates , lawgiver , and just about everybody else . The so - called Instagram for Kids freak is onpausefor now .
On the surface , the sun still seems to shine brightly on the technical school heavyweight just recently inducted into the $ 1 trillionvaluationclub , but dig a little deep and one finds an increasingly stony creation . All of these mounting , inveterate issues pose potentially serious issues for Meta , which pass a decent chunk of last year trying toconvinceobservers to think of it as a metaverse company . But , even with an flood of cash and aspreeof metaverse hiring , any meaningful wide - scale of measurement adoption of the metaverse is still old age away , if it ever happens . Even Meta ’s earlypitchesaround the concept make it unclear if the company itself even totally have intercourse which direction it ’s headed .
Facebook vice president of VR Hugo Barra can’t contain his excitement about VR.Photo: Josh Edelson (Getty Images)
All the while , challenger ( most notably TikTok ) are eating away at the ship’s company ’s relevance in societal medium . Worse still , the effects of Apple ’s App Tracking Transparency feature appear to have taken a leaden cost on Facebook and Instagram ’s digital advertizing conglomerate . For those unfamiliar , Applelaunchedits anti - tracking feature betimes last year which sought to give exploiter ascendance over the amount of datum that the apps on their phones are allowed to suckle up . Apple ’s move was met with fierceoppositionfrom Facebook , and for good reason : consort to an Octoberreportfrom AppsFlyer about 62 % of iOS users had reportedly opted out of trailing . That ’s a large mountain considering ad made up around 97 % of Meta ’s overallrevenueslast quarter . Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg talk directly to these worry in a recentearningscall .
share in the companyplummeted 25%in early trading Thursday to around $ 243 . The drop veer Meta ’s grocery store capitalization by approximately $ 230 billion , putting it on track for the biggest one - twenty-four hours rating wipeout in US incarnate chronicle .
“ Like others in our industriousness , we ’ve present headwinds as a result of Apple ’s iOS changes , ” Sandberg allege . “ As we describe last one-fourth , Apple create two challenges for advertisers . The accuracy of our advertising aim decreased , which increased the monetary value of drive event . ”
Meta CFO Dave Wehner pay a bleaker synopsis and said late seclusion change made by Apple could cost the companionship as much as $ 10 billion in 2022 .
“ We conceive the impact of iOS overall is a headwind on our business concern in 2022 , ” Wehner read on a call with analystsaccording toCNBC . “ It ’s on the order of $ 10 billion , so it ’s a pretty significant headwind for our business . ”
make matters even worse , a seeminglyinvigoratedFederal Trade Commission and Department of Justice in the U.S.waryof large acquisition also threaten to kneecap Meta ’s tried and truthful custom of throw cash to shoot down even remotely competitive society . Oh , and yeah the FTC is also still in the middle of a majorantitrust suitdirectly affecting Facebook .
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