Facebook-owner ‘Meta’ has warned of slowing growth amid a disastrous start in advertising sales in 2022

Facebook’s total number of users has declined, resulting in a poor start to 2022 advertising revenue. It is a first for the social media platform that has experienced seemingly never-ending growth since it debuted 17 years ago.

The tech company lost around $200 billion in just one afternoon after investors gave Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s big plans to create a metaverse, a big vote of disapproval on Wednesday.

Shares in Meta, formerly known as Facebook dived by 23% in after-hours trading on Wednesday to $249.15 following the social media giant reporting tepid quarterly results.

That huge drop shaved almost $200 billion in market value from Meta, sending its total market capitalisation from $900 billion tumbling to around $700 billion

The company’s fourth-quarter profits of $3.67 per share fell short of the $3.85 that analysts had expected.

Revenues of $33.67 billion were roughly in line with Wall Street’s forecasts.

Meta’s 1.93 billion daily active users in its fourth quarter, missed analyst expectations of 1.95 billion.

That total figure was also slightly less than the number of daily users it recorded the previous quarter, marking the first time the company experienced a drop in its platform users in its history.

It comes as audiences flock to competitors like TikTok and Snapchat for advertising.

Mark Zuckerberg also lost a whopping $24 billion in net worth following the disastrous results of Meta’s stock drop.