The Downfall of Meta

by Emily Chu, Reporter

Culture, National News

On June 28, 2021, Meta reached over one trillion dollars in value, and just six months later, Meta is now worth less than Home Depot. Currently valued at around 300 billion dollars, Meta lost over 650 billion dollars between 2021 and 2022.

Facebook first began to explode in 2005, gaining over six million users composed mostly of students. Facebook quickly became one of the most popular social media websites on the internet, surpassing MySpace in 2008. At the peak of its popularity, Facebook would gain over 100 million active users each year, and that number would triple to 300 million during the pandemic lockdown. But their growth was short-lived, and in 2022, Facebook’s daily users began to decline for the first time in its 18-year history. The dip in users alarmed many investors and many speculated Facebook had reached its peak.

Facebook was not only losing users, but also billions of dollars due to Apple’s new privacy changes. In late April 2021, Apple released iOS 14.5 which gave users the option to opt-out of user tracking. Targeted advisements and features that allowed companies to see whether a download or purchase was made were affected greatly. Many online companies have lashed out at Apple, with Meta being one of the loudest to lament due to their estimated 10 billion revenue loss. Facebook would continue to lose more revenue as advertisers turned toward Google for advertisements. An operating chief at Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg said its privacy feature would hurt small businesses that depend on personalized ads, an argument Meta has used repeatedly against Apple. But in the past year, Apple has shown no signs of reversing their change.

Despite the turmoil in his company, Zuckerberg continues to throw mountains of money into the “Metaverse,” a concept he believes will revolutionize the web. Zuckerberg's ambitions began in 2013 when Meta picked up Oculus, a VR (virtual reality) company. Facebook had been accredited with helping create Web 2.0, the “user-generated web;” Zuckerberg seems adamant about taking a shot at Web 3.0, the third phase of the World Wide Web which contained features such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and crypto-based economics.

Forbes reports Zuckerberg has spent upwards of 36 billion dollars on his vision, with 10 billion being spent in the past year alone. Though VR and XR (virtual and mixed reality) would undoubtedly become a lucrative market, it seems Meta is years, if not decades, away from their advertised “Metaverse.” Much criticism fell upon Zuckerberg's ambitious plans as Meta’s horizon worlds (a VR game made by Meta) avatars were years behind most other games and still did not include functioning legs. On August 15, 2022, Mark Zuckerberg enthusiastically posted a screenshot of his avatar in front of the Eiffel tower, damaging Meta’s reputation further. Zuckerberg quickly promised “major graphic updates” coming soon, and announced legs would be coming to the Metaverse. But things quickly fell apart when it was revealed the legs they had shown in the demo were created through motion capture. Zuckerberg’s refusal to give up has resulted in the layoffs of 13 percent of his company, adding up to roughly 11 thousand jobs lost. His personal net worth also took a hit, losing 88 billion of his 125 billion fortune.

Is this the end of Meta as we know it? Their success will heavily depend on whether or not Meta’s efforts to create the Metaverse come to fruition or not. Though the company might not be in a great position currently, Facebook still holds itself as one of the most popular social media platforms.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet. 

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