Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that his company will begin massive layoffs on Wednesday, with 11,000 people expected to lose their jobs.
The layoffs will affect 13% of Meta’s workforce and affect its Metaverse-focused research labs and its apps, including Facebook, Instagram and the Whatsapp messaging platform, he said.
“I want to take responsibility for these decisions and how we got here,” Zuckerberg said in a note to employees.
A once-thriving business is trying to recover from the financial crisis at the expense of its employees. This story is as old as the American Dream, but it’s especially compelling in the case of Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta to emphasize its global perspective.
Just a few years ago, it was seen as a growing company, investing in innovative startups and influencing elections. Apparently, excessive optimism about its prospects led to excessive growth, which the company could not cope with.
The speed at which most tech companies have expanded during the pandemic has turned into a curse on giants like Amazon, Apple, Twitter and Meta, which now employ more than 87,000 people worldwide, including in Israel.
Zuckerberg told staff that he expected e-commerce and online activity to continue to grow, but added, “I was wrong and I’m responsible for that.”
So what happened to Meta’s flagship platform, Facebook? Apparently it’s not popular anymore. Recent reports suggest that Facebook is losing young users and, as a result, investors. Last month alone, their market value was devalued by $80 billion after the company’s third-quarter earnings halved.
Add to this a bloated staff, and layoffs are indispensable. Thus, the promised “metaverse” failed not only its users, but also the people who worked to create it.
Post time: Nov-18-2022