Hunterbrook Capital has taken a short position in Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), betting that early excitement over the company’s Muse AI agent is running ahead of the usage data.
Hunterbrook disclosed the position Friday with a Hunterbrook Media report based on alternative data from TickerTrends. The numbers point to a cooling launch.
Benzinga reached out to Meta Platforms for comment and did not receive an immediate reply.
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Downloads Slip
Hunterbrook highlighted data showing Muse downloads averaged about 165,000 a day in the latest seven-day stretch, down 8.1% from roughly 180,000 the week before.
Daily downloads came in around 170,000 on Oct. 6, 21.1% below the Sept. 24 peak of about 215,000.
Reviews fell too. TickerTrends counted 4,716 Android and iOS reviews in the seven days through Oct. 7, down 11.6% from the prior week. iOS reviews dropped 22.5%.
TickerTrends drew attention this week after its $50.44 billion estimate of OpenAI‘s annualized revenue landed much closer to newly reported figures than the $70 billion number investors had been passing around.
Usage Climbs, Slowly
Daily active users are still rising. TickerTrends put worldwide Muse DAUs at 2,730,919 on Oct. 6, the highest reading in its data.
Hunterbrook pointed to the slow pace as a problem and calculated an average net gain of about 198,000 users a day from Sept. 15 to Sept. 22. Growth slowed to about 87,000 a day the next week, then to about 74,000 a day in the seven days through Oct. 6. That makes the latest pace 62.4% slower than the first surge.
Muse also has fewer users than Threads did at the same point in its launch. Threads launched globally, though, and lost users much faster after its debut.
From Investigation to Short
Hunterbrook first went after Muse last month over privacy concerns. The report alleged the agent could be prompted to compile lists of Facebook and Instagram accounts tied to vulnerable groups, including undocumented immigrants, transgender public school teachers and women who said they had ordered abortion pills in states with bans.
Hunterbrook Capital said it was not short Meta when that report ran. It is now, after the download and usage data turned.
Zuckerberg’s Big Bet
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Muse “the centerpiece of our vision for what we’re building” at the company’s event last month. The agent can send email, book travel and shop using its own computer and browser in the cloud.
Meta added about $200 billion in market value as Muse rose to the top of the U.S. App Store and Google Play free-app charts, according to Hunterbrook.
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Blocked Sites, Privacy Risks
Hunterbrook also pointed to websites limiting what Muse can do. TickerTrends tracks user reports of sites that have restricted the agent, including Amazon.com, Costco Wholesale and Netflix. In September, Amazon said it blocked Muse from shopping for customers.
META Stock Price Activity: Meta stock was down 0.41% at $717.95 at the time of publication Friday, according to Benzinga Pro market data. Meta shares slipped below $718 shortly after Hunterbrook published its report around 1:30 p.m. ET.
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