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| Photo: Morning24World |
FORBES calculation reported FACEBOOK co-founder Mark Zuckerberg losing nearly $3.3 billion of his personal net worth for the latest indication changes to the social networking site.
Zuckerberg’s announcement that Facebook would change its algorithm to make people’s news feeds more focused on friends and family, rather than posts from businesses and media companies, 4.4 percent drop came just after that announcement.
In a Facebook post on Thursday 11 Januari 2018, Zuckerberg said that public content from brands had inundated news feeds, overtaking posts from personal connections. By the end of Friday, Facebook shares were trading at $179.37, down more than 4.4 per cent from Thursday’s price of $187.77.
Zuckerberg, who Forbes ranks as the fifth-wealthiest person in the world, co-founded Facebook in 2004, when he was 19 years old.
Now 33, the billionaire is worth $72.4 billion, behind only Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Amancio Ortega of Zara.
Facebook Inc. said it’s making major changes to its flagship social network, shifting users’ news feeds back toward posts from friends and family and away from businesses and media outlets -- a transition that is likely to mean people spend less time on the site. The shares tumbled the most in more than a year.
“Video and other public content have exploded on Facebook in the past couple of years,” wrote Zuckerberg in his post.
“Since there's more public content than posts from your friends and family, the balance of what's in News Feed has shifted away from the most important thing Facebook can do—help us connect with each other.”
“As we roll this out, you'll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard—it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”
Critics slammed Facebook for failing to filter out misinformation over the past few years, especially during the 2016 presidential race when “fake news” abounded all over social media.
Zuckerberg has insisted in the past that Facebook is not a media company, and said that the notion of his platform’s content influencing the election was a “crazy idea.”
The latest tweak could be an effort to eliminate some of the responsibility of policing brand content, according to some experts. But investors seem to be wary of the change, and businesses are worried that it could hurt revenue models.
Facebook and companies from Twitter Inc. to Apple Inc. have been confronting a mounting public backlash against technology and social media, as the public grapples with a constantly connected life in which they are exposed to fake or biased news, cyber bullying and even internet addiction
REFERENCE:
1. Newsweek
2. Bloomberg
3. Forbes
