After comfortably sitting on the list of top ten wealthiest people in America since 2015, it looks like Mark Zuckerberg’s luck may have finally run out.
The founder of Facebook has been rapidly gaining wealth for the last 2 decades, springboarding him to being the third richest human on the planet at one point.
As the CEO of Meta, Zuckerberg bought an incredibly popular social media platform, Instagram, and communications app Whatsapp, dominating the industry.
However, it’s been his latest business decision that may be his downfall.
Zuckerberg launched Meta Platforms as the parent company of Facebook as part of a switch over to what the entrepreneur saw s the future of technology. His belief in the metaverse was outlined in his appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast where he said: “My goal for these next set of platforms, they are going to be more immersive, and hopefully they’ll be more useful – but I don’t necessarily want people to spend more time with computers. I just want the time that people spend with screens to be better.”
Sadly this move may have lost him a fortune.
Most of Zuckerberg’s wealth is tied up in Meta stocks and these stocks have dropped rapidly. Facebook earns the majority of its money in advertising and data mining (as does Instagram) but apps like TikTok are growing more popular, meaning Facebook isn’t generating new customers for the first time in years. Plus, Zuckerberg’s Metaverse graphics have been subject to ridicule online, causing people to lose faith in the company.
Zuckerberg’s very public trial has also caused some damage to his reputation.
In 2021 Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen gave a testimony to congress where she shared concerns over the privacy of Facebook users and that Meta is compromising safety. This follows Zuckerberg’s own congress testimony in 2018.
The youngest self-made billionaire of his time is now worth only $49.9 billion.
Meta has lost 61% of its value in just the last 6 months and continues to drop, signaling that the CEO may be looking at more difficult times ahead. Many critics are suggesting that with Zuckerberg as the face of the company, Meta and Facebook cannot make a comeback, but the man himself seems to believe that the metaverse is the next great step in tech.