CEO Mark Zuckerberg certainly imagined the start in the meta world differently. His social media company has lost more than half a trillion dollars in market value since peaking in August. Half of that in just one day, which means the sharpest decline ever in the company’s history. Gone are the days when you were among the top ten most valuable companies in the world. With constant pressure from competitors and disclosure stories from former employees, there is currently no end to the downward trend in sight. In addition, Meta also had to bury the plans for its Stabecoin Diem, formerly Libra.
But how could this happen? The driving force behind Facebook sales has always been the ad tracking system. But Apple has it for its users now possible to block the trackers of the social media platform. This source of profit has practically dried up. Although there are still users from other manufacturers, Google will also gradually introduce similar protective measures for Android users over the next two years. Facebook’s reputation is also crumbling with revelations about how harmful social media can be for young people, such as US media outlet New York Magazine writes. However, competitors such as TikTok are becoming increasingly popular with this target group. At the same time, the entire stock market has been in a correction phase for a while, which is particularly affecting the shares of tech companies – as is well known, the crypto market is not spared either.
Given this rather bleak scenario, Meta and Zuckerberg’s hopes now rest on the Metaverse – and those hopes have not been fulfilled since the name change. Because the vision of an immersive Internet does not only have supporters. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that Meta will gain a foothold there and implement its concept of virtual reality. The necessary funds for Zuckerberg’s ambitions should still be available. But it’s less clear if he’ll be able to garner a loyal following again.
