‘Every move scrutinized’: Facebook’s rocky road to the metaverse

It would hardly be hyperbole to say that since its founding in 2004, Facebook has taken over the world - counting more than 50% of the global population as its user base. But after years of domination built on advertising revenue, the company has nearly overnight tried to knock down that empire and build anew.

In October 2021, more than 15 years and 2.8 billion users after the then student Mark Zuckerberg launched the social media platform from his college dorm, Facebook announced it had become "Meta" and was refocusing on the company's virtual reality endeavors.

But can a Silicon Valley wunderkind successfully pull off a world-changing technology for the second time? Experts say that with regulatory concerns, technological setbacks, and branding troubles, the company's path into the metaverse is not without its roadblocks.

The attempt to reorient comes at a time when growth has become a major problem for Meta's key business, Facebook.

In its most recent quarterly results, Meta revealed that Facebook had recorded its first decline in daily active users - a key metric for investors - since it was founded in 2004.

The fall from 1.93 billion users between July and September last year to 1.929 billion in the three months to December was driven by declines in Africa and Latin America, although growth dropped in the US too (not for the first time).

But the company is also losing young users, who are a key demographic for the advertisers who provide 97% of Meta's revenue, documents leaked by the company whistleblower Frances Haugen have shown. Meta and its subsidiary Instagram are facing growing competition from the video platform TikTok, analysts at research company Forrester say.