Facebook's user growth has generally gone up and to the right since its beginning. However, Facebook disclosed its first-ever quarterly loss in worldwide daily users, as well as lower-than-expected ad growth, sending its shares down almost 20%.
Even though the decrease is small (from 1.93 to 1.929 billion users), I believe it is only the beginning of the Meta decline. Why?
Due to a lack of relevance among young people. TikTok is taking over the party, and Facebook (and Instagram) still has no new offer that could take this traffic back.
- Parcel delivery firm Hermes UK has announced an ￡11 million investment in its international business. This includes creating a dedicated international division tasked with launching a range of new integrated end-to-end services including inbound, outbound and reverse logistics, combined with new global, cross-border products for retail customers, SMEs, marketplaces and consumers. Read more.
- Ikea is now offering shoppers in the US and Canada a buy now, pay later service with Sezzle. Other recent retailer wins for Sezzle include Target, Lamps Plus, Barstool Sports, The Hut Group, Wakefern Food, BELLAMI Hair, California Pet Pharmacy, Market America, Rogers Sporting Goods, Dermstore, Sportsman's Guide, Made in Cookware, Spartan Race, and Princess Auto. “We are at the start of a journey to embrace data and technology to become more affordable, accessible and sustainable in an omnichannel environment,” says Inter Ikea Group CIO Pascal Pauwels. Read more.
- UK building society Nationwide has partnered with identity verification (IDV) platform Jumio to bolster its online account opening processes. Nationwide delivery lead Carlo Mascia says: “The time it takes to open an account has been dramatically reduced, but the customer experience is the greatest win.” Jumio’s technologies integrate with Nationwide’s existing workflows and can determine if an identity document is authentic and belongs to the user. Read more.?
- London-based company Fiat Republic today announced it has secured $3.5 million in seed funding from renowned EU technology investors Speedinvest, Seedcamp and Credo. “We are creating Fiat Republic to make it easier for crypto platforms to focus on building the future. Challenges in exchanging fiat currencies have always existed in crypto - we saw an opportunity to build a developer-first API capable of removing the need to batch files and undertake lengthy integrations with multiple banking partners.” Commented CTO Martyna Lewinska. Read more.?
- BNY Mellon has added fintech startup Verituity to its accelerator programme to work towards providing faster, smarter, verified payouts. Carl Slabicki, MD, strategic payment solutions, BNY Mellon, says: “We look forward to working with the Verituity team as we explore opportunities for new solutions that will help our clients harness the latest payment capabilities such as RTP, Account Validation Services and other payments services via a single integration.” Read more.?
- Square has revealed the initial results of the first iteration of its integration with buy now, pay later provider Afterpay, releasing the functionality to sellers using Square Online for e-commerce in the United States and Australia. Nick Molnar, Afterpay co-founder, says: “In joining with Square, Afterpay can now more meaningfully give small and midsize sellers the tools to attract young, engaged shoppers who prefer Afterpay and help these sellers compete alongside businesses of all sizes.” Read more.?
- ResearchPool, the innovative investment research and data solutions provider, announces today the launch of a new tool for enterprise customers that will allow buy-side firms to aggregate fragmented, locally stored data - such as environmental, social and governance (ESG), proprietary or fundamental data, often saved in multiple formats, such as spreadsheets, emails, and PDFs - into a single firm-wide, cloud-based hub. Read more.?
- If small businesses with low digital skills were to further increase their digital capability the UK economy could benefit by as much as ￡75 billion* according to the latest Lloyds Bank Business Digital Index. Mandy Ridyard, Co-Chair, West Yorkshire Combined Authority Local Digital Skills, said “The pandemic has forced businesses to adapt and overcome new and unexpected challenges, with digital adoption and transformation being key to the survival for many SMEs across West Yorkshire.” Read more.?
- TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, today announces its expansion into Sweden with the appointment of former Adyen executive Karl Hagner as its Country Manager. A highly experienced commercial manager, with a focus on payments in ecommerce, Stockholm-based Karl will define and manage commercial strategy in the country, alongside TrueLayer’s Chief Revenue Officer Max Emilson. Read more.?
- Monzo intends to revamp employee work-life balance by ensuring staff that have worked for the digital bank for over four years are eligible for sabbaticals lasting three months.This news comes over a year after former CEO and founder Tom Blomfield left the bank after admitting that the pressure of growing the firm in the midst of a global pandemic had taken a toll on his mental health. Soon after Blomfield’s departure, a refocus on employee wellbeing ensued and Monzo announced in May 2021 that those that had been affected by the loss of pregnancy would receive 10 extra days of paid leave. Extra leave can also be approved if staff feel they need more than two weeks. Read more.?
- Google’s public cloud has been chasing competing services from Amazon and Microsoft for so long, you might think it would be getting winded. But the critical Alphabet division keeps on keeping on, yesterday reporting revenues of more than $5.5 billion for the fourth quarter. That was the good news. The bad news was that Google Cloud accrued operating losses worth $890 million at the same time. It may be hard to understand how a business with a run rate greater than $22 billion is losing money, but chief financial officer Ruth Porate explained it in the earnings call with analysts. Read more.?
- Facebook shares tumbled more than 22% in extended trading after the company reported disappointing earnings and gave a weaker-than-expected forecast. Here are the results. 1. Earnings per share: $3.67 vs $3.84 expected, according to a Refinitiv survey of analysts. 2. Revenue: $33.67 billion vs $33.4 billion expected, according to Refinitiv Wall Street is also watching other key numbers in the report. Read more.
- There are many reasons to think the traditional venture industry may be at a tipping point after a very good run. The most obvious indication are the sizzling returns private investors have made in recent years, while public shareholders haven’t fared so well. Consider data published yesterday by the WSJ, showing that venture-backed darlings to go public over the last 13 months, including DoorDash, Oscar, UIPath, Compass, Robinhood and Coupang, are respectively trading at -40%, -81%, -56%, -59%, and -28% from their first-day closing prices. Read more.?
