On Thursday, Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, had its stock market value plummet by more than $230 billion (£169 billion), a record day loss for a US company.
Its stock dropped 26.4 percent after the company’s quarterly results disappointed investors.
Facebook’s daily active users (DAUs) have declined for the first time in the company’s 18-year existence, according to Meta.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has dropped by $31 billion as a result of the company’s share price decline.
Mr Zuckerberg’s personal fortune plummeted by an amount equal to Estonia’s yearly gross domestic product.
Even with that decline, Mr Zuckerberg still has a net worth of about $90 billion, making him one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
That comes after Meta disclosed that Facebook’s DAUs dropped to 1.929 billion in the three months ending in December, down from 1.930 billion the previous quarter.
It was the first time this metric of activity on the world’s largest social network has gone in the other direction.
On the eve of the 18th anniversary of Facebook’s creation, Meta’s stock price plummeted.
Meta also warned that revenue growth will decelerate as a result of competition from competitor platforms like as TikTok and YouTube, as well as advertisers pulling back on spending.
Mr. Zuckerberg said that the company’s sales growth had been hampered by audiences, particularly younger users, defecting to competitors.
Revenues for the first quarter of this year are estimated to be between $27 billion and $29 billion, which is lower than experts had predicted.
Despite investing in video services to compete with TikTok, which is owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, the corporation generates less money from those offers than it does from its standard Facebook and Instagram feeds.
Meta, which controls the world’s second largest digital advertising platform behind Google, has also been impacted by Apple’s operating system’s privacy restrictions.
The changes, which make it more difficult for firms to target and assess their Facebook and Instagram advertising, are expected to cost “in the range of $10 billion” this year, according to the company.
“Clearly, Meta was hit more than its competitors, while other social media platforms like Snap showed robust earnings,” said Sachin Mittal, DBS Bank’s head of telecom and internet sector research.
“While Apple’s adjustments have had a broad negative impact on the whole tech industry, we believe that players who rely less on targeted advertisements or have stronger algorithms to cope with Apple’s changes will still perform well.”
During Thursday’s normal trading day, Meta’s share price plummeted, dragging down other social media companies such as Twitter, Snap, and Pinterest.
Snap’s stock, on the other hand, soared over 60% in after-hours trading after the company declared its first quarterly profit.