The technology giant’s shares plummeted more than 26 per cent to US$237.76 after revealing that Facebook’s global daily active users dropped from 1.93 billion in the third quarter to 1.929 billion in its fourth quarter, marking the key metric’s first drop in 18 years. (The Logic, The Washington Post)

Talking point: Meta CFO David Wehner said on a conference call with analysts Wednesday after markets closed that the company faced “some headwinds” in the world outside of Canada and the U.S. In India, for example, data-plan price increases led to slower user growth. In a follow-up conference call, he also highlighted “strong competition” from other apps, especially TikTok. It’s a big deal, since if there are no more people to add to the site, Facebook’s future growth will have to come from increasing user content and consumption. That may help explain why it’s focusing on the metaverse—a long-term, potentially risky bet. Investors erased hundreds of billions of dollars from Meta’s market value—CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself lost nearly US$30 billion overnight—helping it break the record for the largest one-day wipeout. Other tech stocks such as Pinterest and Snap weren’t spared, and some investors took advantage of the sale.