Meta Platforms is set to sack an additional 10,000 jobs across its operations, Meta’s Chief Executive and Founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday.
The tech giant, which owns the family of apps including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced the layoffs just months after approving 11,000 redundancies in November last year.
According to the memo, Meta would also axe an additional 5,000 open positions with the firm. Zuckerberg said in his statement the job cuts would be “tough” amid the company’s “year of efficiency” plans.
Zuckerberg added that he believed the company had suffered a “humbling wake-up call” due to poor revenues in 2022. The firm reported a 4 percent year-on-year drop in earnings, despite profiting over $23 billion USD that year.
He said in his statement:
“For most of our history, we saw rapid revenue growth year after year and had the resources to invest in many new products. But last year was a humbling wake-up call. The world economy changed, competitive pressures grew, and our growth slowed considerably. We scaled back budgets, shrunk our real estate footprint, and made the difficult decision to lay off 13% of our workforce.”
He added that higher interest rates across the United States, geopolitical instability, and tightening regulations had hit Meta’s business operations.
Zuckerberg added: “I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.”
Meta to Focus on AI, Metaverse
Zuckerberg added that Meta had been working on “transformative” technologies and that advancing [artificial intelligence] was its largest investment. He added that the firm had the infrastructure to develop the emerging technology “at unprecedented scale” with “amazing” experiences.
The exec added,
“Our leading work building the metaverse and shaping the next generation of computing platforms also remains central to defining the future of social connection. And our apps are growing and continuing to connect almost half of the world’s population in new ways. This work is incredibly important and the stakes are high. The financial plan we’ve set out puts us in position to deliver it.”
He also explained that Meta would remain more transparent on its restructuring plans, its timelines, and principles for its future plans.
Concluding, he said:
“In terms of how we should operate during this period, I encourage each of you to focus on what you can control. That is, do great work and support your teammates. Our community is extremely resilient. Change is never easy, but I know we’ll get through this and come out an even stronger company that can build better products faster and enable you to do the best work of your careers.”
Recap of Big Tech Redundancies
The news comes just days after Bloomberg reported that Meta Platforms would launch the layoffs, citing sources familiar with the matter. At the time, sources remained anonymous due to discussions over internal issues. Meta had also declined to comment on the matter.
In recent months, multiple tech giants have slashed their workforces. This has included Google parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and others amid the ongoing tech crisis.
Additionally, Microsoft shuttered both its Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) for the US Army and its AltSpaceVR social metaverse platform.
The company cut 10,000 jobs later last year, citing the need to restructure and reprioritise its customer needs.
Layoffs.fyi, a website for monitoring redundancies across the tech sector, reported over 128,000 job cuts in 2023 alone.
