Mark has absolutely Zucked it
According to best estimates, Facebook – or to be more precise, Meta – has lost a staggering $500bn since the company underwent its drastic rebrand in October 2021.
As per a report from New York Magazine, the Meta Platforms, Inc. conglomerate – Facebook’s holding company – has lost half a trillion dollars since they decided to undergo a name change which was said to signify the business’ shift towards focusing on augmented reality and the metaverse – hence the name.
While the stats speak for themselves, some economic commentators still think the company can recover:
.@CaseyNewton explains that Facebook's pivot to the metaverse is not necessarily doomed to fail: “I think that investors who are dumping them now might be in for a rude awakening if and when Facebook figures this out.”
Listen to @PivotPod: https://t.co/B8wQ5Nkif3 pic.twitter.com/M0pHi1yFrc
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) February 18, 2022
CEO Mark Zuckerberg was said to have been pushing for development in new technologies for some time and decided to pivot away from more traditional social media after he admitted he could not keep up with the likes of TikTok on the same day the site lost users for the first time in its history.
The huge losses aren’t, of course, just because of a name. Significant funds were pumped into the technology used to build the VR metaverse, not to mention advertising costs and being hit by Apple‘s privacy changes. Actually, almost half of the market value disappeared after they suffered the biggest single-day slump in stock market history earlier this month.
Zuckerberg reportedly appeared 'red-eyed' in a call to staff 👀https://t.co/repquKDyfN
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) February 4, 2022
As reported at the time, Zuckerberg was said to have taken a hit of more than $30bn in his own pocket following the landmark loss. It is unclear what the figure stands at now.
The $500bn wipeout is so bad that where Facebook was once ranked the sixth-most most valuable company in the world, since becoming Meta it has now fallen out of the top ten entirely.
To make matters worse, The Wall Street Journal claims that stock in the company is now so toxic that businesses are gradually moving all of their entire advertising budgets over to Google wholesale, as Facebook – sorry, Meta – is no longer deemed profitable.
Who has my tiny violin?
Related links:
- Mark Zuckerberg issues warning he may be forced to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe
- Woman says she was ‘virtually gang-raped’ in Facebook’s Metaverse
- Mark Zuckerberg warns against screenshotting in Messenger app after new update
