--- title: "Analysts Say Mark Zuckerberg Has Made a Grave Error About Facebook" description: "As Facebook's Metaverse slump continues, analysts are saying that CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have made a terrible miscalculation. " date: "2022-10-17" modified: "2022-10-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/analysts-mark-zuckerberg-error" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "facebook" - "mark zuckerberg" - "metaverse" - "the digest" --- # Analysts Say Mark Zuckerberg Has Made a Grave Error About Facebook ![As Facebook's Metaverse slump continues, analysts are saying that CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have made a terrible miscalculation. ]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Make or Break As Meta-formerly-Facebook's slump continues, analysts are saying that CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have made a terrible miscalculation. In [interviews with *Yahoo Finance*](), financial experts predicted that Meta may reach a "make or break" moment in the next couple of months as Zuckerberg doubles down on building out the company's metaverse. "I think Mark Zuckerberg is telling us he doesn't think he has a core business," Laura Martin, a senior analyst at the Needham investment bank, told *Yahoo*. "He is moving to \[Instagram\] Reels because it competes with TikTok," Martin added. "He is moving to the metaverse, and he's changed the name of this company, which tells me he doesn't think his core business that he built 15 years ago is actually a business anymore." ## Judgment Day Meta's day of reckoning has been predicated on its shift towards building both infrastructure for and interest in its bespoke Metaverse. Given the fact that the company's stock has [fallen roughly 60 percent]() over the last year, that shift isn't going over so well. When it comes to Facebook and Instagram — the social networks that make up the core of Meta's revenue — the company is trying hard, but failing, to [compete with TikTok](). [According to the *Washington Post*](), an average American user spends 80 minutes a day scrolling TikTok, which is more than they spend on Facebook and Instagram combined. ## Fundamentally Speaking Beyond "losing a lot of time" to TikTok, Martin also noted that Facebook is also set to lose out big as the economic downturn continues, since it relies on ad spends. As AB Bernstein senior analyst Mark Shmulik told *Yahoo*, the company will need to get back to basics if it wants its stock to rebound. "I think the stock is back to questions around, really, core fundamentals," Shmulik said. "I imagine investors would love it if they were spending a lot less on it," referring to Zuckerberg's metaverse push. We can imagine it too — but it doesn't seem like Zuckerberg intends to head in that direction — whether the rest of the company likes it or not. **More on Zuckerberg:** *[Say It Ain't So! Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse Legs Were Apparently Staged]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()