Facebook’s $232 Billion Face Plant Sets Record for Largest One-Day Market Value Drop

Facebook lost more than $232 billion in value following the announcement of the company losing daily users for the first time ever. The humiliating 26 percent drop in the company’s stock price set a record for the largest one-day loss in market value ever in history. The loss is $50 billion more than the previous record holder, Apple’s one-day loss in September 2020 of $182 billion.

CNBC reports that Facebook set a new record this week by losing more than $232 billion in market value following the announcement that the company lost global daily users for the first time ever. Facebook’s loss of $232 billion in value on Thursday is the biggest one-day drop in value in the history of the U.S. stock market.

(AFP/Saul Loab)

The stock price plunge was based on the company’s weaker-than-expected revenue forecast and topped the prior record set by Apple when it lost $182 billion in market value in September 2020.

The seven biggest drops in stock market history have all taken place over the past two years, with tech firms like Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Amazon rapidly increasing in valuation. Facebook was already on the leaderboard for the largest value drop in 2018 when it lost $119 billion in market value.

On Wednesday, Facebook (now Meta) reported flat user growth across almost all of its platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp last quarter, but even more worrying for the company was the loss of around 1 million daily users in North America.

The majority of Facebook’s advertising profit comes from North American users, so a loss of 1 million users shows signs of what could be a worrying trend for the company. This loss of users led to an overall decrease in daily Facebook users globally which a company spokesperson said was the first sequential decline in the history of Facebook.

Facebook’s heavy bet on the metaverse has also cost the company money in recent months, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating that the company had a net loss of $10 billion in 2021 due to its investment in the metaverse.