Facebook has lost daily users for the first time since its inception in 2004. The social media platform witnessed a drop of about 5 lakh users on a daily basis in the last quarter of 2021.

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According to the latest quarterly earnings report of Facebook's parent firm Meta, the company's growth has stagnated around the globe for the first time.

Following this, Meta's stocks tanked by almost 20 percent, plunging its market value by a whopping $200 billion in an instant.

The most significant losses came from regions like Latin America and Africa indicating that Meta's products including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are nearing saturation. Meta had previously cautioned its investors that its advertising business is witnessing uncertainty in the fourth quarter.

While the user growth on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp remained stagnant during the last quarter, Facebook witnessed a significant drop in its daily users in the North American region which accounts for the majority of its ad revenue.

The social media platform is reportedly facing multiple challenges including the booming popularity of TikTok and scrutiny from global regulators as it focuses on its transition to Metaverse. Facebook is also under the government radar in the US and is facing an antitrust case in the country.

The drop in the number of subscribers also reflects that Facebook's rebranding to Meta is not enough to shift the attention of investors from the existing challenges in its primary business.

Facebook's historic rise to one billion active users between 2004 and 2012 and two billion in another five years was driven by the platform's objective to connect the world. This included endeavours to bring more people online in the developing parts of the world.

Furthermore, Facebook Reality Labs, the company's hardware associate that manufactures the Oculus Quest VR headset also witnessed a drop of $3.3 billion in market value.

Facebook has made substantial investments toward its objective of becoming a hardware giant, including recruitment of 10,000 people and rebranding itself to Meta.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)

First Published:Feb 3, 2022 2:01 PM IST