The world's largest social network isn't getting any bigger.
Meta published his fourth quarter earnings, sharing results that disappointed Wall Street enough to send its shares plummeting. Shares of the company, which still trades under the symbol FB, plunged 20% when the figures were released.
Although in the last quarter of Meta Some otherwise expected trends were seen, including Apple's iOS privacy changes that dampened its advertising business, also the fact that Facebook, the main application of Meta, it no longer attracts new users.
Facebook's monthly active users (MAUs) were flat from Q2021 2.900 to Q1930 at 1929 billion. Worse still, its daily active users (DAUs) fell from XNUMX billion to XNUMX million in the same period, a first for Facebook, which is known for its approach to constant growth.
Some of this was predictable. Facebook is a mature product and there are only a limited number of people left in markets around the world waiting to sign up. And the company is putting more emphasis than ever on its "family" of apps, including WhatsApp and Instagram, new products that probably still have a long way to go to reach that level of saturation.
The slowdown in user growth came in the same quarter that the company formerly known as Facebook announced it would rebrand as a "metaverse" company, plans to direct its resources toward creating immersive virtual experiences.
The good news for Meta is that it still owns the world's largest social network. The bad news? Even if a user slowdown was expected, it's one more point that makes Facebook, and consequently the Facebook "Family of Apps," as it calls it. Meta, seems more like a relic of the past than a brilliant vision of the future.
