Facebook Loses Users For The First Time In All Of Its 18 Years

For the first time in history, Facebook lost daily users, according to a quarterly earnings report shared by the social network’s parent Meta on Wednesday.

The platform’s daily logins fell by half a million, down to 1.93 billion, in the last three months of 2021, with the most significant losses recorded in Africa, Latin America, and India. This indicates that the bid to get more users has practically topped out, the Washington Post reports.

Shares for Meta dipped 26.4% the next day, wiping out US$230 billion from the company’s market value on Thursday. Research firm Birinyi Associates, via the New York Times, suggested that this is the worst one-day plunge in value suffered by any US company. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth also took a significant hit that measured up to US$31 billion.

Performance for Meta isn’t all bleak, however. Platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger continued to grow in visitorship, albeit “modestly,” describes the Washington Post. Plus, while Facebook saw a dramatic reduction in daily users, it still recorded a rise in monthly logins.

The decline comes as Meta transitions into the so-called “metaverse” in a massive rebrand, amid privacy concerns and criticism of its ability to protect users’ interests. As the first to project the idea of the metaverse to the mainstream, Meta has also taken on a huge risk.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the growing threats of rivals like TikTok at the earnings call, adding that Meta would devote more resources for its lookalike product, Reels. He also cited Apple’s privacy changes as part of the cause for Facebook’s underwhelming progress.

However, he emphasized that work is just beginning for the new generation of Meta. “Last year was about putting a stake in the ground for where we are heading; this year is going to be about executing,” the CEO said on Wednesday.

[via The Washington Post, CNBC, New York Times, cover photo 81724564 © Alexey Novikov | Dreamstime.com]