The rise and fall of Zuck: From the third richest person in the world to 18th, Zuckerberg’s fall reflects that of Facebook’s

• Mark Zuckerberg, once the third richest person in the world, is now over a dozen positions lower in the list of world’s billionaires.
• Zuckerberg’s fortunes have declined rapidly, more so after Facebook reported its first-ever user decline in the December 2021 quarter.
• Since July last year, Zuckerberg’s wealth and Facebook’s market capitalisation have both declined by over 50%.

Mark Zuckerberg was once on his way to becoming the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $142 billion and ranking third in the list of the richest persons in the world. Since then, though, Zuckerberg’s wealth has declined by more than 50%, reflecting the decline in Facebook’s fortunes.

Not so long ago – in fact, as recently as July 2021, Mark Zuckerberg was the third richest person on Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $142 billion. Facebook’s shares at the time were in the range of $350, with a market capitalisation of nearly $950 billion.

Now, Zuckerberg’s wealth has more than halved, standing at nearly $65 billion. Facebook’s shares in the same period have declined by over 50%, too, with the market cap now under $475 billion.

Zuckerberg held 16.8% shares of Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, as of December, 2020. This explains why Zuckerberg’s fortunes are tied to those of Facebook’s – he rode the highs when the company’s shares surged from $125 at the end of 2018 to nearly $380 in September 2021.

What is the reason behind Facebook’s decline?

There are multiple reasons behind Facebook’s plunge. The most prominent, and clear reason is the rare profit decline that Meta reported in the December 2021 quarter.

To make matters worse, Meta projected a lower-than-expected earnings forecast for the March 2022 quarter, which triggered a massive sell-off in the company’s shares, wiping out $220 billion investor wealth in a single day on February 3, 2022.

Further, the challenge from TikTok – although not available in India – is something that Facebook acknowledges.

“People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly,” said Zuckerberg at the time.

Facebook also lost users for the first time at the end of 2021, with its daily active users globally dropping to 1.929 billion from 1.93 billion. This might look like a rounding error, but it signals that not only has Facebook’s user growth slowed down, its user base has actually declined.

Lastly, the challenge from Apple’s app privacy changes also poses a big threat to Facebook’s advertising model – the company relies on advertising for 97% of its revenues.

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