It’s no wonder why tech entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg wants to live in an online virtual reality “metaverse” given how his real-world financials are going.
The Meta Platform Inc CEO’s net worth has plummeted by $70 billion this year, bumping him from the third richest person in the world to the 22nd on the Forbes billionaires list as of late-morning on Wednesday.
Zuckerberg kicked off the year with a $125 billion fortune, which has now fallen by more than 55% to about $53 billion, according to estimates by Bloomberg.
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These jaw-dropping losses can be attributed to the downfall of Meta - the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus - in which Zuckerberg is heavily invested.
Contributing to Meta’s downfall were Facebook’s first-ever decline in user numbers in February 2022 and the company's spending of about $10 billion a year, or roughly 50% of its capital expenditure, to build out its “metaverse.”
The company’s traditional advertising model also faced challenges from shifting user data privacy moves, including Apple’s iOS14 changes, which saw the company’s net income fall 36% or more than $3 billion in 2Q 2022, compared to the same quarter in 2021.
While tech stocks have struggled across the board this year, with the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite down about 24% in the year to September, Meta has tumbled far further, having lost about 60% of its value.
The company’s share price has dropped from about $365 per share in September 2021 to currently trade at around $145 per share.
Contact the author at emily.jarvie@proactiveinvestors.com
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