Facebook, is the world’s largest social media platform and also, arguably the most controversial one. Here we explore Facebook’s issues that have plagued them time after time. Causing a decline in stock prices of this elusive organization.

What are Facebook’s issues?

Declining interest among younger age groups

It does not take a genius to know that Facebook holds little to no importance amongst the younger generations. Since the onset of platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and as of late, Tik Tok, FB has seen a massive decline. Since 2019, Facebook’s teenage users have declined by 13% in the United States alone. Analysts predict the drop will only increase in the coming years. With almost a 45% decrease to occur during the year 2020 and 2021.

As of 2021, over 500,000 users left Facebook, impacting the platforms 18-history of maintaining its spot as most used social media platform. However, this information may be vague as 2021 involved the first and only time Facebook themselves reported the decrease of user base. This means there could be a withhold of the actual numbers of users leaving, which may be much higher.

Mistrust

An important reason that many have left Facebook stem from the company’s misleading ways. With controversy after controversy, namely with the security breach of the users personal information, many do not trust Facebook. The social media giant has time after time failed to restore their image, making a series of empty promises.

However, many may feel betrayed and untrusting of the platform due to the high risk of losing personal information. According to data from 2018, after the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal, surveys show that trust in Facebook had decreased by 65%.

Poor Treatment of Staff

Another one of Facebook’s issues and a major down point of this organization comes from their mistreatment of workers. According to Guardian, former Facebook moderators claimed that Facebook underpays their employees. Additionally, the company has received accusations that state that contractors responsible for policing hate speech. These contractors do not receive maternity leave, cannot invite friends/family to the company cafeteria and receive just 14% of the median salary payed by the company.

Elusive and unreachable

Despite being a near trillion dollar company, there is very little support offered for the users. If your account is compromised or you are threatened, there’s nobody to call. By design, Facebook makes it impossible to directly contact help. 

This is the same for business partners too. The thousands of businesses who spend money to advertise on the platform have very little support.  Facebook gains notoriety even in this area. Leaving businesses who spend thousands every month have nobody to get real help from. Front line support which has all their bases in India or the Philippines. These employees often get paid less than $1 an hour. Thus making it clear how little priority the trillion dollar company gives service – this is reflected in the service quality received. 

This complacency that was established back when Facebook was king is now coming back to hurt them as many users and businesses have had enough, with alternative channels being more available to them.

Mark

The general public does not trust Mark Zuckerburg. He has been there since day 1 and been accountable for everything mentioned above. Due to the privilege of his position, out of court settlements and how the law views white-collar-crime, he has retained his position in the organisation.  Him not being there may actually hurt their future as less people will trust the brand as long as he’s in the helm. 

The Metaverse Bet

The company will bleed 10b-15b p.a. for the next decade on this bet. They clearly want a slice of the booming pie that is web 3.0 (or the ‘metaverse’ as they like to call it). Given all the factors mentioned above, are people going to trust the brand enough to let them drive web 3.0? This is highly unlikely. Especially given that other companies of their scale (Google, Microsoft, Apple) are working on their own Web 3.0 solutions. Facebook’s bet on the metaverse thus comes as what most would call, a risk.