Social media giant Facebook has faced for the first time in its 18-year history the decline of active users.
The company warned of declining profits in the face of competition from rivals like TikTok and YouTube, while advertisers are cutting costs. Following the announcement, the value of Meta’s shares has fallen by 20 percent, a figure that translates to $ 200 billion in cash.
Shares have also fallen on other social media platforms, including Twitter, Snap and Pinterest. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the audience, mostly young people, was using rivals’ platforms.
Meta, which owns the world’s second-largest digital advertising platform after Google, also said it was hit by privacy changes to Apple’s operating system. The changes have made it harder for companies to target and measure the effectiveness of their Facebook and Instagram ads. Apparently Facebook is no longer as popular with young people as it once was as TikTok is attracting thousands of users every day.
