Facebook’s parent company Meta released its earnings report for the fourth quarter ending December 2021. According to Zuckerberg, the company had a ‘solid quarter’, but in terms of its user base, Facebook saw a big drop globally for the first time.
Facebook’s daily active users decreased from 1.93 billion to 1.929 billion. The Verge reported that Facebook lost 1 million daily active users in North America, which is also where it earns the most through advertising. According to the report, user growth was essentially flat across other Meta apps too, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
The difference in daily users may not seem significant but it’s the first quarterly drop for Facebook, CNBC reported. Analysts predicted 1.95 billion for the company, but it did not reach that number. For the first time since Facebook launched in 2004 and remained one of the most popular and widely used social media platforms, Facebook is losing users globally.
The top spot on Facebook was also taken by Instagram, which overtook it for the first time since 2014. SensorTower data shows that Instagram surpassed Facebook in 2021 in terms of Google Play downloads. Zuckerberg mentioned reels as a growth area along with ‘commerce and virtuality’. These are also areas in which the company is investing as it continues to build its metaverse.
The reasons why users leave Facebook could be due to the platform’s several issues with misinformation, hate speech, targeted content, etc. Additionally, Meta struggles to keep young users on Facebook as other apps such as TikTok and Snapchat capture their attention.
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