As expected, Meta announced this Wednesday, November 9, 2022 a massive layoff plan which leaves more than 11,000 people on the floor. Mark Zuckerberg made a point of explaining this decision in a very detailed blog post.
“Today I’m sharing some of the toughest changes we’ve made in Meta’s history.says the businessman. I have decided to reduce the size of our team by approximately 13% and let over 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner, more efficient business by reducing discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through the first quarter. I want to take responsibility for those decisions and how we got here. I know this is difficult for everyone, and I am especially sorry for those affected.”
Zuckerberg also bears the weight of his mistakes – well, without resigning. He explains that he believed that the exponential growth of online commerce due to the Covid-19 pandemic would continue, and admits that he was wrong. “Not only has online commerce returned to earlier trends, but the macroeconomic slowdown, increased competition and loss of advertising signal has caused our revenue to fall below my expectations.completes the founder of Facebook. I was wrong and I take responsibility for it.”
Prior to this, Meta tried to streamline its business by shifting its resources to fewer high-priority growth areas, such as AI, ads and commerce platforms, not to mention the metaverse (which some don’t see not so amazing). The firm says it will share more information in the coming weeks regarding the future of its business and its priorities.