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 Meta in ergste marktcrash ooit infographic
Graphic shows largest one-day falls in market capitalisation.
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BUSINESS

Meta in ergste marktcrash ooit

By Duncan Mil

February 4, 2022 - Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms has suffered the largest ever single-day market fall on record, plunging 26% and wiping more than $250 billion off the company’s overall value.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg blamed falling profits and users on China’s ByteDance rival: TikTok, the viral video app taking Facebook’s younger users.

“The thing that is so unique is that TikTok is so big as a competitor already and also continues to grow at quite a fast rate off of a very large base,” Zuckerberg said during an analyst call on Wednesday. “Even though we’re compounding extremely quickly, we also have a competitor that is compounding at a pretty quick rate too.”

Zuckerberg spoke after Meta warned that the current quarter was likely to be its slowest period of growth on record. The threat comes as Zuckerberg seeks to diversify Meta’s revenues beyond advertising with his vision of a metaverse. An avatar-filled online world where people can meet, work and play using virtual reality headsets. Metaverse will also incorporate other aspects of online life, such as shopping and social media.

Meta has invested more than $10 billion in its Facebook Reality Labs unit, including virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology. Reality Labs brought in $2.3 billion in revenues in 2021, ending the year with 71,970 employees. It is far from profitable, posting a full-year operating loss of $10.2 billion.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 04/02/2022; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images
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