For First Time In History, Facebook Is On Decline Thanks To Apple & TikTok

[RAMROD 117,019]

Facebook’s latest moment at the top of the news agenda had nothing to do with scandals and everything to do with its financial results, which were so unexpectedly bad that the shares dropped 25% at one point, taking $240bn (£177bn) off its market value, which in turn led to a 2% drop in the Nasdaq index.

Given that Facebook has hitherto been a licence to print money, so much so that at one stage (in 2019), when it was fined $5bn by the Federal Trade Commission, its shares actually went up as Wall Street registered that the ostensibly massive fine was actually the equivalent of a fleabite on an elephant.

But this time was different. Why? Three factors stood out from reports of Mark Zuckerberg’s conference call with stock market analysts: the impact of TikTok; Apple’s move to require iPhone users to consent to being tracked by advertisers; and the revelation that the hitherto unstoppable growth in the number of Facebook users has stalled.

Zuckerberg’s newfound obsession with TikTok must have puzzled many observers. o why is it keeping Zuckerberg awake at night?

The answer is that TikTok caters brilliantly to a demographic group – so-called young adults – that Facebook, with its ageing demographics (parents and grandparents), doesn’t seem to serve well any more. This explains its zeal to re-energise Reels (its ludicrous attempt to mimic the short-video genre) and to reprioritise young adults in its other offerings. But the real problem for Facebook is that TikTok is monopolising its users’ attention, which is where the money for surveillance capitalism comes from.

The second source of woe for Facebook is the impact of Apple’s “app-tracking transparency” (ATT) feature, introduced last year with version 14.5 of its iOS mobile operating system. This required iPhone users to give explicit consent for user-level and device ID-based monitoring by apps. Not surprisingly, users declined in droves. And the impact for Facebook has now become clear – in the form of $10bn in lost advertising revenue. That’s 8.5% of the company’s 2021 revenues, but, more significantly, a quarter of its overall profit for the year.

It’s easy to see why results like these might lead investors to reconsider their stock portfolios. But Facebook has had wobbles before and recovered. As a company, it has vast resources of cash and talent. Given time, it might be able to find a way of luring young adults away from TikTok and of navigating round Apple’s ATT. But for anyone who takes a longer-term view of these difficulties, the big story is that the company’s user base may have stopped growing. The figures revealed last week show that the number of daily active users fell by 500,000 and that the numbers of monthly active users seems to have levelled off at 2.91 billion. If this is the beginning of a trend, it’s really significant.
 

Full article:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/06/first-time-history-facebook-decline-has-tech-giant-begun-crumble

 

[Princess Diana 24,487]

Instagram next!

[Bling 31,680]

Not me reading this as "For the first time in Drag Race herstory..." 

[weed 78,903]

Honestly very exciting that that Apple feature is actually making an impact with advertisement/privacy! While I do always say no I thought maybe it didn't really mean anything--clearly, it means something!!!

[Guest]

I want Facebook to end bcs it would be Zuckerberg’s karma 

[Helxig 45,336]

Good.

F.uck the meta group

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

Good, but the rise of TikTok is not a good thing either.

[Mother of Puppies 36,615]

3 hours ago, Luna Lovegood said:

Instagram next!

Insta belongs to Meta (it’s all one big company)

[Chlorine 47,976]

Facebook is so ****ing evil. I want to see it burn! 

[monstrosity 3,979]

I just hope the whole metaverse thing flops so hard meta goes bankrupt 

never gonna happen tho

[The Fame 4,288]

I logged out of FB a couple weeks ago and haven't looked back. You're welcome.

 

The amount of desperate emails they have sent me to try to get me to log back in is wild, tho.

[imnotyourbabe10 6,120]

Nearly a year off Facebook and Instagram. Miss seeing distant friends but those that matter stay in touch. Only on this Cult site and Reddit for some news.

Down with the technological dystopia! 

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

2 hours ago, Monstruous said:

I just hope the whole metaverse thing flops so hard meta goes bankrupt 

never gonna happen tho

its happening eitherway... fornite is a metaverse, roblox is a metaverse, animal crossing is a metaverse in the making. 

[Logan 20,827]

1 hour ago, imnotyourbabe10 said:

Nearly a year off Facebook and Instagram. Miss seeing distant friends but those that matter stay in touch. Only on this Cult site and Reddit for some news.

Down with the technological dystopia! 

I quit Instagram years ago as well -- It's literally awful for your mental health. 

[RAMROD 117,019]

1 hour ago, Logan said:

I quit Instagram years ago as well -- It's literally awful for your mental health. 

Oh? I thought IG was rather fun?