Facebook owner Meta to cut 11,000 jobs globally

US – Meta, Facebook’s holding company, is making 11,000 employees redundant, reducing its global headcount by 13%.

Meta logo

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the lay-offs in a message to Meta employees yesterday ( 9th November), later posted on the company’s website.

In the message, Zuckerberg said his decision to “significantly increase” the company’s investment in e-commerce had not played out as expected, after a rise in online purchasing during the pandemic returned to prior levels.

Zuckerberg also blamed “the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss” for Meta’s lower-than-expected revenue.

A year ago, Zuckerberg announced that the Facebook holding company would change its name to Meta, reflecting its future focus on and investment in the ‘metaverse’ – an immersive version of the internet facilitated by the use of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.

Meta’s most recent financial statement showed a 4% decrease in revenue during the third quarter of 2022, compared with the same period in 2021. Reality Labs, the part of the business focusing on virtual reality related software, hardware and content, lost $3.7bn in the third quarter.

Despite this decline, Meta will continue to invest in the ‘metaverse’. In the post announcing the job losses, Zuckerberg said: “We’ve shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high priority growth areas — like our AI discovery engine, our ads and business platforms, and our long-term vision for the metaverse.”

Details of the teams and types of job roles affected by the losses have not been announced, but the cuts will affect jobs across both the Family of Apps business (including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and Reality Labs.

Zuckerberg said the company would also extend a hiring freeze until the end of the first quarter of 2023. 

Other cost-cutting measures include reducing the size of its offices, restructuring teams and decreasing budgets.

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