Meta’s (META) recent mass layoff marks a turning point for a company whose business model once seemed untouchable despite years of controversies over privacy and Russian election interference.

While some might blame Meta’s fall on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with the immersive online world known as the metaverse, that’s only one factor that helped send its stock price plummeting 70% in the last year. Other major blows include the rise of short-form video platform TikTok, Apple privacy changes that hurt advertising revenue, and a lack of Gen Z users.

“The company literally has one foot in one direction, which is the metaverse, and another foot in short form video trying to compete with TikTok, and it's not doing either particularly well at the moment,” Forrester Research Director Mike Proulx told Yahoo Finance.

TikTok’s rise, and a graying Facebook

Meta faces threats from both its own aging user base and the rise of TikTok, a Chinese app with more than 1 billion monthly active users.

The key to TikTok’s success is its short-form video format and algorithmically driven For You page, which serves up a stream of videos designed to mesmerize you. As TikTok rose, Meta focused on taking on rival Snapchat, aping its ephemeral video features. TikTok continued perfecting its algorithm and creating a new destination for Gen. Z users.

Meta’s attempt to take on TikTok’s short-form video, Reels, isn’t catching on with those younger users either

“We know that meta has a Gen Z problem,” Proulx explained. “The market share for Reels amongst Gen Z is far lower than that of tech TikTok.”

According to Forrester, just 40% of teens between 12 and 17 say they use Facebook weekly — down from 48% in 2021. Sixty-one percent of those teens say they use Instagram weekly, and 69% use TikTok.

An August Pew Research Center survey found that just 32% of teens use the main Facebook app, while 62% say they use Instagram. TikTok is pulling in 67% of teens.

Unfortunately for Meta, TikTok continues to gain traction among both users and advertisers.