Meta lays off over 11,000 employees which approximately makes up for 13% of the company. In a letter, the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg tells workers, “I take accountability for these decisions.”
Meta Lays Off Over 11,000 Employees
The parent company of Facebook, Meta is laying off over 11,000 employees which is also about 13% of its whole workforce, CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said. This news is following weekend reports that the parent company of Facebook was preparing for mass layoffs.
The company at the moment employs about 87,000 people and Wednesday’s layoff represents the first large-scale workforce reduction in the 18-year history of the company. Its rival Twitter on the other hand which is now under the new ownership of Elon Musk was hit with layoffs just last week with almost half of its 7,500 workers losing their jobs.
Mark’s Letter to His Employees
Mark in a letter to employees also said that the company is cutting down on its budget, cutting back on real estate, and then extending its hiring freeze until March. He further blamed the cuts on the rapid growth of the company during the pandemic when increased online commerce resulted in revenue growth. The CEO believed that this would continue and increase the spending of the company.
“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” he said in the email. “Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected.”
Meta Back In July reported its Very First Ever Drop in Revenue
Meta back in July reported its very first-ever drop in revenue and revealed disappointing third-quarter results last month as sales of ads shrank. The traditional social media business of Meta has faced strict competition in the form of the short-form video platform TikTok.
The financial woes of the company also follow the attempt of mark to shift toward a new type of business which is building the metaverse, a virtual world where mark believes that people will be able to connect with others. And in October 2021, Facebook had to rename itself to Meta in order to reflect this
