Staff ReporterMark Zuckerberg’s decision to prioritize posts from family and friends over brand-driven content on Facebook’s News Feed has cost him a small fortune, it was reported on Saturday.
The CEO of the world’s largest social media network lost $3.3billion off his net worth on Friday, Bloomberg News reported.
After Facebook went public with the news feed change on Thursday, the website’s share value dropped by nearly four per cent before US markets opened on Friday.
By close of business on Friday Facebook shares were trading at $179.37, down more than 4.4 per cent on Thursday’s price of $187.77.
Forbes has calculated that for Mr Zuckerberg, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Facebook, this translated into a personal hit of 3.3bn – a 4.4 per cent fall in his personal fortune.
Zuckerberg, 33, who started Facebook in 2004 aged 19, still owns a 17 per stake in the company, which went public in 2012.
He explained his reasons for changing the news feed algorithm in a Facebook post on Thursday, saying he wanted the website to prioritise posts from friends and family over businesses and brands.
Just how much Mr Zuckerberg will worry about the short term drop in his wealth is also unclear.
Given that Facebook shares were trading at around $127 (£92) a this time last year, the company’s value is still up by more than 40 per cent year-on-year, even after this week’s fall.
Despite losing $3.3bn, Mr Zuckerberg is still worth $72.4bn (£52.7bn).
In December 2015 Mr Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan said they were planning to give away 99 per cent of their Facebook shares down the line.
