Facebook Has Probably Peaked. What Can Mark Zuckerberg Do Now?
The social network’s first ever drop in daily users is a landmark moment, and it is hard to see the company’s founder steering the company back to growth.
For years, Wall Street kept faith in Facebook’s powerful ad machine. Investors gave Mark Zuckerberg the benefit of the doubt when he bet the company’s future on the metaverse and they largely forgave callous business practices revealed by a whistleblower. What mattered was the constant user growth that kept the machine printing money — a machine that accounts for a remarkable 98% of total revenue.
It is why, for years, “daily active users” was the North Star to Zuckerberg and his executives. Now, for the first time, that number has declined. Still classified as a “buy” by most analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, Facebook was downgraded by four banks, including JP Morgan Chase & Co.