Mark Zuckerberg's Bad News Comes Amid A Huge Win For Jeff Bezos
This week, Mark Zuckerberg received some bad news about his company's overall performance in 2021. The Guardian reported that the company Zuckerberg founded had a bad year — probably the worst in its history — as Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly known as Facebook, Inc.), was hit with allegations of misinformation, along with several whistleblowers leaking embarrassing information. The Guardian noted that Facebook started 2021 playing defense after news broke that the social media platform played a large role in helping people plan the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Then Zuckerberg was called before Congress to testify regarding Facebook's role in the deadly attack.
But the biggest scandal that hurt Facebook in 2021 came from Frances Haugen, an employee who revealed the company's dark secrets. Haugen shared a trove of damning internal documents that showed the company knew far more about the harmful impact of Instagram and Facebook on users. In October 2021, Haugen told The Guardian, "I had such profound distress because I was seeing these things inside of Facebook and I was certain it was not going to be fixed inside of Facebook." The reluctant Haugen said, "I never wanted to be a whistleblower. But lives were in danger." Another speed bump for the company was the fact so many people slammed Facebook's decision to change its name to Meta.
But Zuckerberg's latest bad news hit a little closer to home, and it was made worse by good news received by tech titan Jeff Bezos.
Mark Zuckerberg lost $30B while Jeff Bezos gained $20B
Mark Zuckerberg lost $30 billion, while Jeff Bezos gained $20 billion as Amazon shares soared. The Daily Mail reported on Zuckerberg's massive net worth loss, which has plunged roughly $30 billion since Meta's February 2 quarterly report. The loss pushed Zuckerberg off the top 10 list of Forbes billionaires. The infamous tech founder ranked No. 12 on the list after the market closed on February 4. Oh no! But Zuckerberg's losses were made worse after the Mail reported Bezos gained $20 billion after Amazon's February 3 quarterly earnings call. CNN reported Amazon's profits doubled during the final 2021 quarter, exceeding Wall Street projections.
At a virtual Meta meeting on February 3, it appeared that Zuckerberg's bad day made him cry. A person who attended the virtual meeting told Ad Age that Zuckerberg's eyes were red. The 37-year-old tech guru was wearing glasses, telling employee, "he might tear up because he scratched his eye and not because of the share drop." According to the Daily Mail, Meta lost $237 billion in one day, aka the biggest single-day loss ever recorded.