It was not a good day for Meta Platforms Inc. or its investors, but it was a good day for capitalism.
After a quarterly earnings report revealed a decline in Facebook’s daily active users — a first for the company — Meta’s shares plunged by 26% on Thursday, some $250 billion in market value was eroded and analysts declared the behemoth all but dead. That prediction may well prove wrong. Regardless, the selloff was a reminder of why Washington’s approach to reforming tech can sometimes miss the mark.
Facebook fell because of signs it’s being outcompeted. TikTok, a video app that barely existed five years ago, is swooping up younger users as it becomes one of the most popular digital destinations in the world. Other services — Snap, Discord, YouTube, Twitch and others — are grabbing more eyeballs. Facebook, like MySpace before it, has simply lost some of its allure.