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Maybe you were overtly political in a recent Facebook that ruffled some feathers and it may have cost you a few friends. But your unwelcomed Facebook post was nothing compared to Mark Zuckerberg’s latest Facebook post that cost him $3.3 billion. You’d think the CEO of the biggest social media platform on the planet would be a little more careful with what he says on his own creation.
On Friday, Zuckerberg posted an update on his social media platform where he divulged that Facebook’s news feed would feature more content from family and friends. This would mean that a decrease in content from media outlets, businesses, and brands. “We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us,” Zuckerberg said. “But recently we’ve gotten feedback that public content – posts from businesses, brands and media – is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other. Based on this,” the Facebook CEO added, “I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”
Wall Street did not like the sound of this proposal and Facebook’s stock plummeted. Facebook’s shares fell as much as 5.5%, to $177.40. By the close of business on Friday, Facebook shares were trading at $179.37, down more than 4.4% compared to Thursday’s price of $187.77. Zuckerberg saw his immense fortune fall $3.3 billion on Friday after the post advertising the new strategy. Zuckerberg lost so much money that he fell a spot in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. Zuck’s net worth fell to only $74 billion and he dropped to the world’s fifth-richest person in the world after Spanish retail billionaire Amancio Ortega slid into fourth place.
Facebook users can expect to see fewer videos in their news feeds, which were inundating the site after the social media giant made videos their priority not long ago. “There will be less video,” said Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s vice-president in charge of news feed. “Video is an important part of the ecosystem. It’s been consistently growing. But it’s more passive in nature. There’s less conversation on videos, particularly public videos.”
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