Meta’s First Reported Decline Signals a Potential End of an Internet Era

On April 29, 2024, Meta’s earnings release disclosed a dip in daily active users—the first decline recorded since the company began reporting such figures. The same report noted a concurrent slump in the company’s stock price, indicating a shift from growth to contraction.

Futurism

Facebook launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only network, expanded to other elite colleges, and opened to the public in 2006. Rapid growth led to an IPO in 2012 and acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. In 2021 the firm rebranded as Meta and pursued a costly Metaverse pivot that has since been deemed a failure.

Futurism

• First recorded user-number decline (April 29, 2024 earnings).

Futurism

• Earnings strain linked to “years of growing consumer disaffection and reckless spending.”

Futurism

• Stock price fell alongside the user dip.

Futurism

• Instagram and WhatsApp remain core assets but have not stopped the erosion.

Futurism

The dip signals a cultural shift: a platform once central to online social life now carries “zombie-era” stigma among younger users, many of whom have abandoned Facebook. Declining engagement threatens advertising revenue and reduces Meta’s leverage in AI and virtual-reality markets where rivals are advancing more quickly.

Futurism

Meta’s earnings release on April 29 reported a decline in daily active users and noted a concurrent slump in the company’s stock price.

Futurism

Investigative journalist Julia Angwin, writing for *The New York Times*, framed the earnings as proof of “consumer disaffection and reckless spending.” Futurism’s analysis added that Facebook’s feed is now saturated with “industrial-scale engagement bait, sleazy ads, and lazy misinformation,” and that Meta’s AI push “sets money on fire” while lagging competitors.

Futurism

• “That’s the case that acclaimed investigative journalist Julia Angwin made today in the New York Times: Meta’s earnings are starting to show the strain from years of growing consumer disaffection and reckless spending.” — Julia Angwin, Investigative Journalist, *The New York Times*

Futurism

• “By 2026, after a failed pivot to the Metaverse — oh yeah, it changed its name to Meta back in 2021 — scrolling Facebook feels like an infinite timeline of AI slop, ads, and lazy misinformation, none of which the company seems to have an iota of interest in cleaning up.” — Futurism staff writer

Futurism

• “If there’s one thing Meta’s taught us, it’s that a formerly beloved site can always get worse.” — Futurism staff writer

Futurism

• “Ever since his pivot to VR failed, he’s been practically setting money on fire to try to establish dominance in the red-hot AI space — but so far his efforts have lagged far behind the competition and the only real tangible effects are that Facebook’s feeds are more clogged with garbage than ever before.” — Futurism staff writer

Futurism

The article suggests Zuckerberg may still have undisclosed strategies, but no detailed plan has been announced, leaving the company’s ability to reverse the decline uncertain.

Futurism