Övünç Kutlu
July 26, 2018•Update: July 26, 2018
By Ovunc Kutlu
NEW YORK
Facebook lost $122 billion in value Thursday after the tech giant failed to meet expectations and number of users in its second quarter earnings report.
The company's stocks fell 20 percent to as low as $174.78 on Wall Street after closing Wednesday at $217.50.
The decline led Facebook’s market value plunge to $499 billion Thursday, from $621 billion in the previous day's close. The $122 billion loss is the largest single day loss ever in market value for a publicly traded firm in the U.S.
The social media giant said Wednesday in its financial statement that it had revenues of $13.23 billion in the second quarter – analysts were expecting $13.24 billion.
Daily users in Europe fell to 279 million from 282 million in the first quarter, while in the U.S. and Canada its figures remained unchanged at 185 million.
Daily active users worldwide almost stalled, rising just 22 million as the company struggled with a data leak scandal in which 87 million users’ data were illegally accessed by Cambridge Analytica.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April about the data leak but the company faced regulations overseas with Europe implementing stricter data laws to protest user privacy online with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
"GDPR as an important moment for our industry. We did see a decline in monthly actives in Europe," Zuckerberg told investors during conference call Wednesday.
Facebook also had to deal with fake accounts, pages and groups on its network, most notably the 2016 president election in the U.S.
"Over the next 18 months, there are important elections beyond the US in Brazil, India, and the EU. These will all be real tests for Facebook," Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg, the world's youngest billionaire, also saw his wealth decline by about $16 billions to approximately $67 billion.
