In most dire situations, there are winners and losers.

The Covid pandemic is a fitting example.

While many of us struggled, tech companies and those invested in them laughed themselves to the bank, thanks to unprecedented stock gains. Products like Zoom had become a part of our daily lives, and our new dependency on them turbocharged stock prices. Between February and October 2020, Zoom’s stock price increased by over 500%. We stayed indoors more, so we used more Netflix, spent more time on social media apps, turned to home fitness and started relying heavily on delivery for consumer items, groceries and meals. We also found our wallets heavier with stimulus checks and grants, and the rise of Robinhood alongside the frothy market was an opportune moment for retail investors to throw money into their favorite stocks.

It was a genuine — albeit temporary — cultural shift.

Once the stocks overcame the initial dip, it was up, up and away, no matter what grave statistics were revealed or what shocking historical moments occurred.

But the rise was built on a shaky foundation. Would the endless growth continue when the pandemic subsided enough for life to return to a (new) normal? When we returned to the office and spent less time at home, would these companies be able to adapt or pivot to maintain our attention?

2022 has answered that question, swiftly and brutally.

Call it a big reset, call it a correction, but the market has crashed back to reality. And the pandemic winners have found almost the entirety of those gains wiped out.

Apple (Down ~20%)

2022 has been a funny year for Apple. Its latest iPhone launch wasn’t as successful as anticipated. Consumer demand is being tested by inflation and interest rates. Its deep ties to the other tech companies has meant it’s felt the knock-on effects. There’s been court dramas and lawsuits about its shady App Store practices and potential antitrust breaches.

But, it’s Apple.

The company has over $100 billion in actual cash in the bank. It has its money-spinning App Store (at least for now). It has made swift changes to privacy and tracking, which has dented Meta’s profits and opened the door for Apple to start pushing its own ads. It’s working on an AR/VR product, which could be a smash hit. It will have many more product launches next year, and some will break sales records (like the iPhone 14 Pro).

All in all, the company will be fine, and make another mountain of cash next year.

Google/Alphabet (Down ~40%)

In late October, Alphabet had its worst day since March 2020, when Covid shutdowns started in the U.S.

The main reason? The continued pullback in online ad spending. Revenue growth has dropped from 41% the year before to 6%. Of course, Google and its video platform YouTube count advertising as its primary income source, and these wider cuts to spending on ads are having a severe impact. The pain will likely continue for a few quarters to come.

There have been rumors that Google will spend more on hardware going forward — Google Glasses 2.0, anyone? — but that isn’t going to drive the same profits that the company’s incredible ad business provides. I’d like to see the company move more into the A.I. industry in 2023 (they likely are already behind the scenes). The recent launch of ChatGPT should show Google how it could use its search engine capabilities in the future.

Amazon (Down ~50%)

After a whirlwind pandemic that saw the stock price hit the roof, the company is now trading at its pre-pandemic levels and is the second worst-performing FAANG company of the year. (The winner of that wooden spoon is below). In November 2022, the company’s market cap value fell below $1 trillion for the first time since early 2020.

There are several factors; marketing and ad spend pullback, softness in the cloud computing markets, and the looming fear that a recession will cause a pullback in customer spending. Throw in soaring inflation, rising interest rates and predictions that this holiday season will be weaker than hoped, and it’s a perfect storm.

Amazon still makes 100s of billions in profit and controls almost its entire supply chain. The company may have a rougher 2023 if the economic conditions worsen, but I’d bet on Amazon pulling itself back up in the near future.

Netflix (Down ~50%)

The pandemic was the peak ‘Netflix and Chill’ era. With so many of us stuck indoors, we got our fix of social connection by binge-watching the same shows — like the Tiger King — and discussing them extensively on social media.

But the company’s meteoric performance didn’t go unnoticed, and suddenly, every network and its dog was launching streaming platforms. Netflix was soon sharing its lunch at a very busy table. User growth stagnated. The share price dropped. Netflix went on the defensive, blaming password sharing (which will end in 2023), and even joined its competitors in offering an ad-supported tier. (TV execs must have had a field day.)

As we move into 2023, streaming services face a big problem — the market isn’t big enough for all of them.

There are only so many households and credit cards, and only so much time a person has to watch the insanely overwhelming choice on offer. And, of that choice, 90% of it has become borderline trash, created to beef up content numbers, resulting in users trying to find diamonds in the rough. Users are getting stricter on what service they will pay their hard-earned money for.

The real answer to the streaming industry’s problem?

Consolidation.

Let’s see how the year shakes out.

Tesla (Down ~60%)

Where do we start?

Though we can all admit — Elon loyalists aside — that one car company producing decent electric cars that sometimes turn into fireballs can be worth more than most other car companies combined is absurd, this decline is less about Tesla.

It’s about Elon Musk. The real damage began when Musk considered buying Twitter, then bought Twitter, then tried to pull out of buying Twitter before finally buying it for a hugely inflated price.

His chaotic leadership display since, and his countless hostile interactions with employees, former employees and even Tesla investors, is quickly driving the man’s reputation into the ground. And as Tesla relies so heavily on that — he’s essentially its entire marketing campaign — the stock price is following suit. Even as I type this, the stock has dropped another 20% in the last 5 days alone.

Meta (Down ~60%)

2022 has been a total clusterfuck for Zuckerberg and Meta.

Hedging his entire company on the Metaverse concept was always going to be a gamble, but even he couldn’t have expected it to have been received so poorly and for the buzz to have died down so fast.

In a recent earnings call, Zuckerberg was defiant, stating, “People will look back a decade from now and talk about the importance of the work being done here.”

But with billions being thrown at it for little in return and investors seeing a once golden stock turn sour, he might not have that runway. With the projected timeline being a decade or longer and the share price already dropping a whole digit a few months back (something not seen since 2015), Zuck’s Metaverse could not only fail to change the world; it could be the final death knell for his company. 2023 is a big year for the company, for better or worse.

DoorDash (Down ~65%)

If the company’s business model sounds familiar — lose lots of money in a mad pursuit to gain customers — it is. The same strategy is used by all the other delivery and ride-share companies pushing into the food and groceries delivery market. And it seems that less investors are buying into it.

For the year, Uber is down 40%. Lyft is down 77%. And DoorDash, who IPO’d in 2020 on the back its pandemic success, is down over 65%.

The drop should come as no surprise.

The party was never going to last, and the return to old ways left them with little chance of turning a profit in the coming year. How long can the losses last when the growth stalls?

Not long — especially with a recession lingering.

Peloton (Down ~70%)

Gyms closed. A boom in home workout routines. Peloton must have looked to the sky and thanked the gods for the pandemic. It was almost a golden ticket. And for a while, it was. Peloton benefited greatly, its share price shooting up more than 440% in 2020.

Thanks to its smart, ‘Apple-like’ marketing and equally ‘Apple-like’ costs, it quickly asserted itself as the premium brand for home workouts.

But then, gyms reopened, and the number of people using them slowly returned to normal. Suddenly, Peloton — once plagued with product shortages — was now plagued with too much inventory. In May 2022, its stock price hit an all-time low, and despite a change of leadership, a few new product offerings and some pricing changes, the company has never recovered.

The story has been a rollercoaster to date, and it’s likely still got legs left. But, in some ways, Peloton has already won the race. It just happens to be the wrong one: the race to the bottom.

2023 could be the year it’s acquired.

Snap (Down ~80%)

In a stock sense, Snap has been in total free-fall. Its performance consistently disappoints investors, having only made a profitable quarter once since going public in 2017.

In its defense, user numbers continue to grow, but its inability to turn any profits — hampered by ad pullback, a failure to expand product offerings and failing to compete with Instagram and TikTok — means the platform is fighting a losing battle, and its struggles will continue. Expect a Hail Mary play, perhaps AR/VR glasses, in a last-ditch attempt to turn fortunes around.

In sum, 2022 has been a spectacular return to normal.

Some declines can be attributed to business decisions — like Zuck’s pivot to the Metaverse and his focus on turning us into headset-wearing zombies. Other falls can be attached to the behaviors and actions of the man in charge — looking at you, Elon.

The landscape is also very different. The aftermath of the pandemic has left economies on the edge of recession, and the consumer’s purse strings have tightened. All the indicators that drive trust in a stock are faltering; the mass hirings have become mass firings, earnings reports keep missing targets, user growth is stagnating, and the exercise bikes are now expensive clothes hangers.

As for what 2023 holds, I’m not the person to answer that. But it’s going to be fascinating to watch which stocks rebound, which find themselves stuck in this new normal, and which continue their decline to the bottom.

I’ll put it to you: What are your predictions for 2023? Which of these companies is going to fare worst, and who is coming in to take their place?