"2022 will be remembered as the year in which companies that were always growing stopped doing so, or doing so at the rate at which they did," says Professor Pablo Foncillas. Facebook, Amazon, Snapchat and even Google and Amazon have reduced their market capitalization "in an unprecedented, beastly way", up to 80% in some cases.
What is behind this technological situation? The lack of advertising. Google's ad revenue grew just 3% last quarter, up from 43% growth a year ago. For the first time, revenue from advertising on YouTube declined. Snap posted its slowest ad revenue growth ever. Meta's ad sales, which account for over 98% of the business, were a disaster. Negative outlook wherever you look.
The situation may lead to a change of era. "For the first time in their history, these companies are going to have to learn to manage something that is not abundance. They are going to have to start managing scarcity, which configures another type of company," says the researcher.
His response to the new landscape is being common. And in companies that want to sell themselves as leading companies it is something very little innovative...
