As $200bn was wiped off the value of Meta, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg focused blame on falling profits and users at Facebook’s parent company on a rival: TikTok, the viral short-form video app.

“The thing that is so unique is that TikTok is so big as a competitor already and also continues to grow at quite a fast rate off of a very large base,” he said during an analyst call on Wednesday. “Even though we’re compounding extremely quickly, we also have a competitor that is compounding at a pretty quick rate too.”

Zuckerberg spoke after Meta warned that the current quarter is likely to be its slowest period of growth on record. Wall Street reacted in horror. Shares plunged 20 per cent leading to the biggest ever single-day drop in market capitalisation for any company.