For the first time, Facebook loses daily users
Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal, not always strong CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the many ‘forwards’ about privacy and why you should get off the platform, Facebook has only now seen a decline in daily users for the first time in its history. .
Daily users
That is clear from the figures for the fourth quarter of 2021. Facebook has lost many daily users, but to what? There is a good chance that this is due to other social media, because in the meantime, for example, TikTok continues to grow. What is also striking about the numbers is that the advertising growth is also less than the company had anticipated. Shares have plunged 20 percent (and that’s $200 billion gone all at once).
The biggest problem is the United States, where Facebook lost 1 million daily users. That is very difficult, because the United States is one of the most important markets for advertising for Facebook. At the same time, WhatsApp and Instagram, other companies of parent company Meta, also didn’t show great numbers in the previous quarter: there was no growth. It is probably mainly due to the young users, who, certainly due to the somewhat stagnant Facebook, often move to TikTok, among others.
facebook
Not that Facebook should be immediately pronounced dead, because the company went from 1,930 to 1.929 billion in daily active users. Moreover, the company is currently busy with the metaverse, so the innovation is probably mainly in that platform, rather than one of the oldest social media we know. In addition, parent company Meta is still making tons of money: it raked in $40 billion in profit last year. This is mainly due to the advertisements.
At the same time, Meta has a lot of costs, especially now that it focuses on the metaverse. The augmented and virtual reality glasses that are made, the further initiatives around the metaverse and Quest cost a lot of money. The Reality Labs division, which is practically the metaverse portion of Meta, lost $10.2 billion in one year against $2.3 billion in revenue. Would the VR glasses it plans to release later this year help? It will be quite a high-end device, so the expectation is that many people will certainly not have any money available for it during corona time.
Again, the decline in daily active users doesn’t have to mean the death of the platform. An exciting time is coming for Zuckerberg and co, because between now and the real kick-off of the metaverse, it can actually use more money for development, instead of less. Will it just be a somewhat difficult time for Facebook, a kind of lull before the metaverse storm, or can Meta turn the tide for his platform that started it all?
Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal, not always strong CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the many ‘forwards’ about privacy and why you should get off the platform, Facebook has only now seen a decline in daily users for the first time in its history. . Daily users That is clear from the figures for the fourth quarter…