Meta Platforms shocked investors Wednesday with an unusually weak earnings report. Then Thursday, the company lost $250 billion in market cap. What in world is the Meta with Facebook?

Meta Platforms (ticker: FB), which includes Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, stunned financial markets with fourth-quarter results and weak guidance for the March quarter. The company said revenue growth could be as low as 3% in the period, compared to first quarter 2021 when Facebook’s revenue was up 48%. Meta projects first-quarter revenue growth between 3% and 11% from 2021 or $27 billion to $29 billion, is well below consensus estimates of $30 billion.

Meta said in its earnings release, it expects, “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 company also noted “macroeconomic challenges like cost...