In a rare event, Facebook reported a drop in the number of daily users in the fourth fiscal quarter in its latest report. The bucket of cold water, also accompanied by a 5% drop in net income compared to the same period last year, made the shares of the giant Meta (formerly Facebook Inc.) plummet 20% in an instant.
Apparently, the big name change isn’t enough to boost Facebook’s morale against the competition. In North America alone, the main source of earnings for Mark Zuckerberg’s original social network, the decrease in the number of daily users reached 1 million.
The drop in the number of users is possibly due to the low popularity of the social network among young people. In a report on the website The Verge, a survey showed that fewer and fewer teenagers use the platform and that this popularity tends not to increase as they get older.
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Due to the fall in the value of the shares, Meta lost US$ 200 billion of market value. During the investor meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg admits that much of this impact is due to fierce competition in the social media industry, especially because of TikTok.
Meta still makes a lot of money
Despite the negative numbers, Meta still reported $40 billion in profit mostly from ads and advertising. Much of the value, however, is redirected to the development of the announced metaverse — that is, virtual reality labs, which include new VR devices and apps.
Investment in the VR segment should increase this year, including. By the end of the year, Zuckerberg predicts the launch of yet another virtual reality headset — this time, a “high end” — that will complement the competition alongside the Oculus Quest 2, one of the most popular devices in the industry.
“I’m excited about the progress we’ve made over the past year in several key growth areas such as Reels, Commerce and Virtual Reality. We will continue to invest in these [áreas] and other key priorities for 2022 as we work on building the metaverse,” said Zuckerberg.
The fruits of this investment, however, will only be seen within a few months (or years, in the worst case scenario). The metaverse is still a very new concept with numerous barriers that need to be overcome to truly engage people.
