Meta Shares Crash 26.39% On Dismal Outlook, Amazon Shares Soar

Shares of Facebook owner Meta fell 26.389% on Thursday, after the social media giant issued a dull forecast, blaming increased competition.

"We expect first quarter 2022 total revenue to be in the range of $27-29 billion, which represents 3-11% year-over-year growth. We expect our year-over-year growth in the first quarter to be impacted by headwinds to both impression and price growth," the CFO commentary read.

"On the impressions side, we expect continued headwinds from both increased competition for people's time and a shift of engagement within our apps towards video surfaces like Reels, which monetize at lower rates than Feed and Stories," the CFO commentary read.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO sounded more optimistic. "We had a solid quarter as people turned to our products to stay connected and businesses continued to use our services to grow," said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. "I'm encouraged by the progress we made this past year in a number of important growth areas like Reels, commerce, and virtual reality, and we'll continue investing in these and other key priorities in 2022 as we work towards building the metaverse."

Amazon shares on the other hand soared, after the company said revenue climbed 9% in the fourth quarter and the company reported a gain of almost $11.8 billion from its investment in electric vehicle company Rivian.

Tech companies have been volatile post earnings with Netflix and Meta plunging on poor forecast, while Amazon and Alphabet sounding more upbeat.

According to Bloomberg, the huge drop, erasing over $200 billion from Meta's market capitalization and around $29 billion from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's net worth, spilled over to the broader technology sector and dragged the Nasdaq Composite Index lower.