Solène Delinger 5:23 p.m., February 04, 2022

The year 2022 is off to a bad start for Facebook.

For the first time since its creation in 2004, the social network has lost users: the number of people connecting daily to its service worldwide fell by four million between September and December 2021. And, Facebook shares, now Meta, plunged 25% on Wall Street on Thursday. 

DECRYPTION

Will 2022 be a dark year for Facebook?

For the first time since its creation in 2004, the social network has lost users: the number of people connecting daily to its service worldwide fell by four million between September and December 2021. Shares of Facebook, now Meta , plunged 25% on the stock market. 

End of infinite growth

“Facebook is probably at a level and we can bet that it is the end of the infinite growth of Facebook”, advances Fabrice Epelboin, professor at Sciences Po Paris, specialist in social networks and cybercrime, at the microphone of Europe 1. "There are already more than two billion users. It's already huge. On American territory which, in general, is a precursor on the others, there is no more growth", underlines- he.

The only solution for Facebook is therefore to do "external growth, to buy other companies in order to continue to grow".

But that hasn't really worked so far. 

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Facebook better able to innovate internally

"Facebook's last big acquisition, for example, was WhatsApp. And this acquisition had a blank check from the European Commission against the promise never to mix data from WhatsApp with data from Facebook. A promise that has been betrayed. So, today, we can imagine that all competition regulators will put a stop to Facebook's external acquisition strategies", explains Fabrice Epelboi.

"This poses a critical problem for Facebook, which can't see the markets and say 'I need the money to buy competitors and keep growing.' able to generate innovation internally". 

A "climate of suspicion"

How to explain the fact that Facebook no longer attracts as many users?

"People are starting to be wary. They have excellent reasons to be wary," emphasizes Fabrice Epelboin.

There was indeed the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

"He revealed to the general public that Facebook was a colossal political tool. The social network has been used in dozens, if not hundreds of countries, to influence public opinion and cheat the democratic game. And so, today, most politicians in the world are well aware that Facebook is a mortal danger for them and for democracy in general. As a result, it revives a climate of suspicion".

This race for mass surveillance in the private sector is beginning to come to an end and "inevitably, the income that goes with it is dwindling".