Boom! This is now about survival.

And that’s not looking promising. We recently posted on the existential threat facing Meta (Facebook), its shift and loss in users, and its push to dominate the metaverse. FB is losing DAUs at quite a significant clip. Users plateaued and began declining in the last three months of 2021, a first in the platform's 18-year history. And the metaverse? FB lost $10B investing in its metaverse endeavors last year alone. Compensating for losses at that rate requires sustained income from advertising on its platforms.

Consider Apple’s privacy settings that are killing FB’s ability to target and the rise of TicTok sucking up users. Together they are strangling Facebook. And Meta is predicting continued decreasing revenue and user numbers. Facebook has said measures taken by Apple on iOS that make it harder for platforms and apps to track users across other apps and websites will cost its business $10 billion in 2022.

This crash puts in question the entire metaverse narrative Meta is pushing. There is no clear path to a sustainable and profitable business model. And while visionaries are replete with a range of income potential, it is still a dream in the foreseeable future. So, where does that leave Facebook/Meta? It’s hard to say. The hard truth is that the metaverse is far from being profitable or replacing the increasingly lost revenue because of competitive platforms or Apple’s policy change.

Interestingly, after announcing Meta’s results, Zuckerberg was quoted, “Although our direction is clear, it seems that our path ahead is not quite perfectly defined.” 

Clearly, they have some work to do.