London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Is Zuckerberg's Meta in trouble?

Is Zuckerberg's Meta in trouble?

The company has hit major problems amid its biggest market value wipeout ever

Social media giant Meta has delivered a gloomy outlook in its first earnings since undergoing a major rebrand in late 2021. The company suffered a staggering sell-off last week as its stock plummeted 26% and its market value plunged by more than $230 billion. Experts say Meta is in a difficult spot and more trouble lies ahead.

1. What is Meta?


Formerly known as Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms brings together apps and technologies, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among other subsidiaries, under one new company brand. Zuckerberg announced the renaming in October, saying the company was transitioning from social networking toward the so-called virtual world of the metaverse.

2. What’s Meta’s biggest problem right now?


Even though Meta recorded modest gains in new users across all of its apps, growth hit a ceiling for its core Facebook social networking app, which has lost about half a million users over the last three months of 2021, compared to the previous quarter. That’s the first such decline for the company in its 18-year history.

3. How are Apple changes affecting Meta?


The iPhone maker recently announced it is considering pulling out of Europe if it’s not given the option to transfer, store, and process data from its European users on US-based servers. The problem is related to the so-called App Tracking Transparency update introduced by Apple last spring to its mobile operating system. The update allows iPhone owners to choose whether they would let apps like Facebook monitor their online activities. Apple’s changes would cost Meta $10 billion in revenue over the next year, Meta said.

4. Why is Meta losing advertising to Google?


Sharing data between countries and regions is crucial for the provision of Meta’s services and targeted advertising. Apple’s changes have given advertisers less visibility into users’ behaviors, so many have started shifting their ad budgets to other platforms, primarily Google. Unlike Meta, Google is not heavily dependent on Apple for user data. The company reported record sales, particularly in its e-commerce search advertising. Meta called out Google’s advantage during a disappointing earnings report, claiming “Google’s search ads business could have benefited relative to services like ours that face a different set of restrictions from Apple.”

5. Who are Meta’s other major competitors?


The network is facing stiff competition from rival platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. In response, Meta has shifted focus toward short-form video like Reels, to rope in young adults. Zuckerberg said having to compete for users’ attention with other social media apps – primarily, TikTok – is an obstacle that could inhibit Facebook’s growth in the future.

6. Why is Zuckerberg’s virtual reality world facing backlash?


Mark Zuckerberg’s push into Metaverse, a virtual world accessible through goggles or glasses, has led to an avalanche of criticism. Experts say the concept has the same old issues, like privacy. One of Facebook's earliest investors, Roger McNamee, has even labeled the social media giant's plans for a metaverse as “dystopian,” saying there’s much misinformation on the platform. Zuckerberg said last year that Meta would need to invest many billions of dollars for years to come before the metaverse reaches scale. The company has already invested more than $10 billion in 2021.

7. Why are governments cracking down on Meta?


In recent years, Meta has been involved in multiple controversies regarding privacy violations, and is facing antitrust investigations around the world. Mark Zuckerberg has argued that Meta is not a social networking monopoly. He has pointed furiously to what he calls “unprecedented levels of competition,” including from TikTok, Apple, Google, and other future opponents. Regulators have been addressing the Big Tech's anticompetitive conduct, and there are signs that US antitrust regulations may be about to toughen.

8. Is Meta in trouble?


The size of the Facebook parent’s collapse illustrates just how tech companies have ballooned in size to become behemoths with unprecedented market power, analysts say, pointing to the drama that can ensue when they fall. They point to the volatility that has gripped the technology sector this year, noting that the mood on Wall Street has turned decidedly bleak on the long-time market darling. According to some analysts, Meta found itself in “the middle of a perfect storm.” Others say that “the cuts run deep,” adding this could be “the beginning of the end.”

Comments

Claire 4 year ago
Yes! F**k Zuckerberg and the rest of the criminals...of which there are many!
Oh ya 4 year ago
I love good news like this in the morning. Hope it crashes

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
×