Mark Zuckerberg’s companies have reported a loss in revenues after a decade-long stint. No one is immune to the looming recession, and Facebook and other Meta-owned brands seem to be suffering too. Facebook reported a revenue loss of 1%.
You may wonder if 1% is such a minuscule amount, but that translates to millions of loss in revenue. It is expected to escalate in the coming months. Meanwhile, Meta reported a 36% revenue loss, after which the number stands at $6.7 billion. Zuckerberg’s ambitious Metaverse project is also draining a lot of capital.
Facebook needs to do better
Apple introduced anti-tracking measures in iPhone a year back. That changed the game for many social network companies, including Facebook, which relied heavily on tracking users. The data would be used to offer actionable insight into user preferences and make money from advertisers.
But Apple put a massive dent into Facebook’s profits. Earlier, the users could not opt-out of cross-app tracking, but in new iOS versions, users are given an option to enable or disable tracking. The result is that 65% of the users opt out of app tracking, due to which Facebook suffered a massive $10 billion dollar loss in revenue. On top of that, the slowing economy will hurt Facebook and other Meta-owned brands even more.
A shimmer of hope is the sudden surge in Facebook’s user base, which was stagnant for quite some time. The report showcases that the user base rose by 3% and currently stands at 1.97 billion. Facebook may soon attain a 2 billion active user base. Meta reported that 2.88 billion use its social apps – Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The number of users grew by 4% in the last quarter.
Like every entrepreneur, Zuckerberg looks at the current situation as a testing phase. He knows that Instagram reels, and Metaverse, all will make money in the longer run. Reels haven’t been monetized yet, but that could happen in the near future. While Metaverse is still a distant concept that requires billions in investment to create a virtual world, accessories, platform, and more.
