Just a few months ago, Mark Zuckerberg was bobbing around in the metaverse as a legless avatar. Today in the real world, his company is staring at a roughly $200bn loss in market value.’

It is admittedly not a good look. But as Meta — formerly Facebook — posted its first earnings report as a so-called “metaverse” company, Zuckerberg’s modus operandi became a lot more clear: His social-media dynasty is beginning to look quite aged.