Why Did Facebook Stock, Pinterest Stock & Snapchat Stock Crash Over The Last 6 Months? Why has social media been in a tailspin the last few months? Some social media stocks are down by 50% from their stock trading highs over the past year. Facebook or Meta hasn’t fallen as much as others, but has still seen carnage in its stock. Just last week Facebook/Meta’s stock dropped by a quarter in one day. In fact the total market value lost over this recent social media sell off in the market is over a quarter of a trillion dollars.
The answer lies with Apple and Tim Cook. As a result of Apple’s monumental privacy change to their App store last April 2021, all iPhone users have the ability to opt out of letting apps track their movements.
But, why does it matter that consumers can stop apps from tracking them?
Very simply social media apps make a lot of money from tracking their users movements. Moreover, this tracking allows social media companies to sell highly targeted advertisements. So if a social media user is near a Best Buy, Facebook can sell that to Best Buy’s advertising department who will place their Best Buy ads in front of that user. And if that user needs a new laptop or flat screen television, then Best Buy might have found themselves a new customer that day. But, with Apple’s new privacy feature all of these social media companies can’t sell as many advertisements and make less money. And in conclusion, see their stocks drop big!
