Mark Zuckerberg loses $71 billion in 12 months after entering metaverse

By Team Newsable | First Published Sep 20, 2022, 4:17 PM IST

Mark Zuckerberg's decision to change his focus and enter the metaverse has cost him dearly. The largest loss for a billionaire listed on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index this year was $71 billion (5.65 lakh crore) in wealth for Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Mark Zuckerberg's decision to rename Facebook as Meta and put more of an emphasis on Metaverse did not go well in the near term, as his net worth dropped by a massive $71 billion in 2022, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He now ranks 20th among all billionaires worldwide, which is his lowest position on the list since 2014, according to Bloomberg.

The only two people ahead of the Meta CEO in terms of net worth in 2020 were Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In September 2021, with Facebook shares surging to $382, Zuckerberg reached his wealthiest point, with a net worth of over $142 million.

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Zuckerberg introduced Meta and renamed the company's name from Facebook Inc. in October last year. The company has since experienced a decline, according to the report. The company revealed in February that there had been no increase in the number of monthly Facebook users, which caused a massive drop in the price of its shares and a $31 billion decrease in the CEO's net worth.

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But as a result of his company's rebranding and subsequent losses, his net worth has now dropped to $55.9 billion.

While the Metaverse and its many apps continue to be the centre of attention, reports indicated that Facebook's monthly user base did not increase, which led to a gradual decline in share prices.

In its primary market, Meta hasn't done as well as it once did, and TikTok has outperformed it on a number of crucial metrics. Facebook has once more underperformed when compared to rivals like Netflix, Apple, Google, and Amazon, to mention a few.

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The California-based company is faring worse in 2022 than most of its FAANG peers. It’s down about 57 per cent this year, far more than the declines of 14 per cent for Apple, 26 per cent for Amazon.com and 29 per cent for Google parent Alphabet. Meta is even narrowing the gap in 2022 losses with Netflix, which is down about 60 per cent.

Given that Meta accounts for the majority of Zuckerburg's fortune, the company's commercial slump has been a pain for him, and the new index will undoubtedly serve as an opportune alert.

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