Aurélien Fleurot 06h21, February 04, 2022

While Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google have just posted record figures for the year 2021, it's a whole different story on the side of Meta, the new one from Mark Zuckerberg's group, which includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. .

Disappointing annual results and the market response was scathing: 210 billion dollars lost.

A course that plunged 25% on Wall Street.

A fall which is explained in particular because Facebook is losing subscribers for the first time in its history.

DECRYPTION

Facebook was created in 2004 and the social network had never seen the number of its users drop. In the last 3 months, a million people have simply stopped going online every day. Admittedly, there are still nearly 3 billion, but the trend is there: Facebook is losing ground against the competition, in particular that of TikTok.

The platform launched in 2016 has already gathered 1 billion users worldwide and is showing exponential growth.

"People have a lot of choices to pass the time. And apps like TikTok are growing really fast," said Mark Zuckerberg.

This is explained in particular because it corresponds more to the requests of Internet users, according to Grégory Bley-Desforges, one of the managers of TikTok in France.

"Anyone, because they want to communicate about something, can directly record, edit and publish content with their phone. It's the takeover of the user as creator, with this ability to emerge on a platform like celebrities". 

The metaverse is in the dark

Facebook is also currently suffering from the vagueness that surrounds its shift towards the metaverse, this universe of augmented virtual reality, which now gives its name to the group, Meta.

Investments in 2021 greatly exceeded gains: 8.9 billion in expenses against only 2.3 billion euros in income.

The metaverse is a long-term strategy, Mark Zuckerberg knows this, but Wall Street is not waiting and the Meta stock has fallen by more than 25%, leading to a general drop in the Nasdaq.

Mark Zuckerberg's group is also suffering the consequences of various controversies over user data, the strengthening of European regulations and the rules imposed by Apple last year in terms of advertising targeting. 

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Tech giants who perform, others toast

Among the famous "GAFAM", only Facebook, now Meta, is losing ground.

On the contrary, the results were very good or even historic for Apple (83 billion dollars in turnover in the 4th quarter of 2021, +29%), Amazon (which doubled its profits in the 4th quarter of 2021), Google (258 billion dollars earned, +41% in 1 year) and Microsoft, which is making major investments. 

On the other hand, this beginning of the exit from the health crisis with the end of generalized telework and the massive arrival of vaccines against Covid-19, has claimed other victims like Netflix, which has lost 40% of its value in 5 months or Zoom, whose action has been divided by 4 in 1 year.