Facebook Inc.’s scandals are finally hitting the company where it hurts the most, its growth. Facebook lost about $130 billion in market value in just two hours, its steepest stock decline ever, and the personal wealth of Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg also took a major hit, Mark Zuckerberg lost nearly $17 billion in just two hours on Wednesday. It’s just about a fifth of his net worth.
Facebook’s growth is slowing with users in some of its most lucrative markets. Facebook reported its slowest growth rate ever, with 2.23 billion people logging in at least once a month in June, below the 2.25 billion analysts expected. $130 billion had been wiped off of Facebook’s market cap as a result of the stock’s plunge.
The disappointing results came after Facebook has been embroiled in a data scandal affecting millions of users. Facebook’s shares fell 16 per cent to $181.89 as of 5.30pm ET, according to Forbes. Just 18 minutes later, it dropped to $167 – bringing Zuckerberg’s net worth to $63.6billion.
Zuckerberg woke up as the fourth richest person in the world with an $82.4billion net worth on Wednesday but was in the eighth spot by the end of the day.
Facebook has been struggling for years with criticism about its content policies, its failure to safeguard private data and its changing rules for advertisers. Those problems hadn’t mattered to the success of the business until now. The Facebook CEO saw his net worth tumbled by $20billion, a record drop, taking him down four spots in Forbes’ World Billionaires List.
Still, Zuckerberg assured investors that Facebook continues to see growth on its core platform, as well as its other properties, which include Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
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