Sluggish growth, unfavorable economic outlook, billions of dollars spent on a metaverse project that leaves people skeptical… Mark Zuckerberg and his company Meta have been at the heart of a stock market storm for several months. “I appreciate the patience and I think that those who are patient will eventually be rewarded.” Mark Zuckerberg’s plea was not heard by investors. Aware this Wednesday that the poor results of his group would be sanctioned on the stock market, the CEO of Meta (ex-Facebook) tried to reassure. The least we can say is that it didn’t work. This Thursday, Meta had one of the worst sessions in its history. The share price collapsed by almost 25%. The group’s market capitalization is now “only” $263 billion, its lowest level since January 2016. The company is no longer one of the most valuable American companies. Zuckerberg, who owns 13% of the shares of the social network he founded in 2004, saw his assets melt by 11.2 billion dollars in a single day. It now weighs “only” 37.7 billion dollars. And it does not seem to be a simple accident on the stock market. Since the beginning of the year, the boss of Meta has lost more than 87 billion dollars, or 70% of the value of his assets. From a peak of $141 billion in August 2021, Zuckerberg’s fortune has plummeted by more than $103 billion than the 28th richest in the world. Like a symbolic passing of the torch, the founder of ByteDance, the parent company of the Chinese social network TikTok, is now well ahead of him. His company is not listed on the stock exchange, but Zhang Yuming has an estimated wealth of 55 billion dollars, 45% higher than that of the American. Admittedly, after the euphoria of the Covid period which had seen technology stocks batter records, the awakening is brutal for the tech giants. From Alphabet (ex-Google) to Amazon via Meta, the results have been disappointing for several months and stock market prices are falling. But for Meta, the situation seems more problematic. Stalled in growth, faced with a contraction in marketing expenditure in this period of inflation and above all in competition with TikTok, Mark Zuckerberg’s group has taken the gamble of revolutionizing the world of the web with its metaverse. Problem: this virtual world is currently a mirage and nothing guarantees its long-term success. Above all, the group is spending a lot to develop its platform. The company revealed that it had lost more than 9 billion dollars with its Reality Labs division – in charge of the metaverse – since the beginning of the year, including 4 billion in the third quarter alone. And that’s after already burning $10 billion in 2021. But that’s just the beginning, the company warned during its quarterly earnings presentation on Wednesday. ‘year on year,’ assures Meta. ‘VR is not aligned with reality.’ which currently only 200,000 people on average connect each month. A path deemed by many analysts to be heresy.” Meta investors’ frustration is that Mark Zuckerberg appears to be wearing a pair of Oculus VR glasses 24/7 and hasn’t realized his VR isn’t aligned on the R (Reality, Results and Accountability to shareholders), analyzes in a note Neil Campling, analyst specializing in tech at Mirabaud.Captain Zuckerberg continues to direct the ship Meta towards an unknown path called the Metaverse and is determined to spend billions and billions of dollars in an effort to reinvent itself.” believes in his project. Unfortunately shareholders and investors are starting to lose patience.