(Meta) Facebook stock fell down by 24% as parent Meta Inc. reported 2.91 billion monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2021, almost flat from the prior year.
Daily active users were reported at 1.93 billion on average in December, up 5% from the prior year. North America, which is the main market for daily active users, saw a drop to 195 million users, from 196 million.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also revealed that the company was facing serious competition from video-sharing platform TikTok. It also revealed a quarterly loss of $3.3 billion from the metaverse investment in the fourth quarter.
The company’s woes were compounded by a quarterly net income of $10.3 billion or $3.67 per share, below expected $3.84 per share. The net income was 8% below the prior year. Revenues still rose to $33.67 billion, up 20% from the prior year.
The company’s core advertising segment reported a revenue of $32.64 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $27.19 billion in the prior year. Meta cited the changes to Apple iOS software for iPhones as a headwind in 2022.
Meta now projects revenue of between $27 billion and $29 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Although the revenue guidance is 3-11% above the prior year comparable quarter, it is below $33.671 billion reported in the fourth quarter of 2021.
FB: NASDAQ is down -22.89%.
