Mark Zuckerberg was all-in on the Metaverse last year, willing to spend whatever it took to dominate virtual reality.
And it cost him dearly. At one point, his wealth fell more than $100 billion from its peak – a stunning drop for the millennial who just a few years ago was the third richest person in the world.
So far this year he has focused on the physical world – first cost-cutting at Meta Platforms Inc. and is now working on an actual competitor to Elon Musk. Twitter.
The results seem to pay off. Zuckerberg’s fortune, which is largely made up of his stake in Meta, has grown by around $44 billion this year, most of all tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Even with Meta shares falling slightly on Friday in New York, Zuckerberg’s efficiency pivot made the stock the second-best performer this year on the S&P 500, climbing more than 100% and taking his net worth to 89. .9 billion dollars.
On Friday, Bloomberg News reported that Meta instagram The platform plans to launch a competitor to Twitter next month. The text app is currently being tested with celebrities and influencers, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Meta has a better chance of taking shares of Twitter than its smaller peers, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mandeep Singh and Damian Reimertz said.
“Meta may be challenged to bring Twitter users to its platform,” they said in a note, but this “may pose a threat to Twitter, whose engagement has likely been compromised by charging its heavy users a monthly subscription”.
Meta’s earnings outlook is also improving, Loop Capital Markets analysts Rob Sanderson and Alan Gould wrote in a May 15 note. Analysts have a target of $320 per share, compared to Friday’s closing price of $245.64.
“We believe Meta’s product story is as good as it has been for some time,” they said.