Metaverse loses $230 billion as stock plunges

Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, had its stock market value plummet by more than $230 billion, a record daily loss for a US company. Its stock dropped 26.4 percent after the company's quarterly results disappointed investors.

Facebook's daily active users (DAUs) have declined for the first time in the company's 18-year history, according to Meta.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's net worth has dropped by $31 billion as a result of the company's share price decline.

Mr Zuckerberg's personal fortune plummeted by an amount equal to Estonia's annual gross domestic product.

Even with that decline, Mr Zuckerberg still has a net worth of about $90 billion, making him one of the world's wealthiest people.

That comes after Meta disclosed that Facebook's DAUs dropped to 1.929 billion in the three months ending in December, down from 1.930 billion the previous quarter. It's obvious that Meta is dealing with a slew of issues.

It allows users to choose whether or not they want to be tracked across the internet by firms such as Meta, which may then sell that information to advertising.

That is a huge issue for Facebook because it makes money by gathering information about you and selling it to marketers.

Partly as a result of this, the company's quarterly statistics indicated a decrease in advertising revenue.

TikTok, one of Meta's competitors, is also garnering a younger following. In addition, user growth has slowed around the world.

There are also longer-term considerations to consider.

Advertising is how Meta makes money. Despite this, the company's name has been modified to reflect a concept - the Metaverse - that does not yet exist and will not do so for many years.

Even if there is little indication that people desire to live their lives in virtual reality, Mark Zuckerberg is determined to spend tens of billions of dollars on the project.