Key points
- Hunterbrook disclosed a short position in Meta
- Muse downloads fell while active users kept rising
- The figures are estimates, and trackers disagree
Hunterbrook Capital is betting against Meta Platforms (META), its sister newsroom disclosed on Oct. 9 alongside a report estimating that downloads of Meta's Muse AI agent have slowed. The fund holds a short position, which benefits if Meta's stock falls.
The report, published by Hunterbrook Media, draws on estimates from alternative-data firm TickerTrends. It shows fewer daily downloads but a growing active-user count, with that growth also slowing.
Muse downloads averaged about 165,000 a day in the latest seven days of TickerTrends' data, down 8.1% from roughly 180,000 the previous week. On Oct. 6, estimated downloads were about 170,000, down 21.1% from the Sept. 24 peak.
Daily active users reached an estimated 2.73 million worldwide on Oct. 6, the highest reading in the series. But the pace of growth had eased. Hunterbrook calculated that the count rose by an average of about 198,000 a day from Sept. 15 to Sept. 22, then 87,000 a day the following week and 74,000 a day in the week through Oct. 6.
Meta did not respond to Hunterbrook's request for comment. At Meta's event last month, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg called Muse "the centerpiece of our vision for what we're building," according to the report.
Hunterbrook has a financial stake in the story
Hunterbrook Media and Hunterbrook Capital are separate companies under common control. The fund's investment activities support the newsroom's journalism, according to Hunterbrook's disclosures. Its report said the fund was short Meta at publication and could change its positions at any time.
Trackers disagree on the download totals
Earlier estimates show how widely app trackers can differ. In a Sept. 25 TechCrunch report, Apptopia put total Muse downloads at 4.3 million, including 2.6 million on iOS. Appfigures estimated about 2.3 million across iOS and Android as of Sept. 24, while Sensor Tower put the total above 3.4 million. Muse was available only in the U.S. and Canada at the time.
Sensor Tower later said Muse had passed 5 million downloads about three weeks after its Sept. 8 launch, as we reported on Sept. 30. Those totals measure downloads since launch; Hunterbrook's report focuses on whether the daily pace is slowing.
Meta shares closed down 0.3% at $718.67 on Oct. 9.
