Meta shocked the world this week by announcing massive layoffs. In order to enter the Metaverse, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg invested many resources and funds in research and development, but in the end, it came to nothing, and foreign media WIRED also discussed why this technology giant is facing a layoff storm.
Due to soaring costs and a weak advertising market, Meta this week announced a massive layoff of more than 11,000 people, accounting for about 13% of its total workforce, almost three times the number of layoffs at Twitter. It also plans to reduce spending and freeze hiring until 2023. Season 1 of the year. CEO Zuckerberg apologized for overinvesting due to misjudging the situation.
According to insiders and outsiders, this only explains part of the situation, and more is “too many ghosts within the company.” One of the former Meta employees said, “This incident is not just a correction during the epidemic, it even goes back to the past 5 to 10 years, and even started before Zuckerberg showed his obsession with the Metaverse.”
Former Meta employees pointed out that part of the loss was due to Meta’s many risks and failed experiments over the years. “I really can’t think of a successful Meta application or function in the past five years that was not acquired.” These core businesses It is disrupting and damaging the company, which is also the reason for this massive layoff.
He said that if the company fails every attempt, or is eliminated, it will have to lay off staff, and it will gradually stretch over time. Like the previous launch of a huge blockchain project, hundreds of people are needed. Once the plan disappears, it will be too late to deal with the departure and retention of these employees. In addition, Meta also has internal communication problems, and employees are gradually becoming insignificant in this huge Meta machine. “We seem to do everything, but we don’t have any progress, and we don’t get an update, but this is the action we are taking”.
Meta has previously started many new programs and has been hiring heavily. In 2017, the company employed 25,000 people, up from 87,000 before the mass layoffs. According to the data, Meta’s staff has grown by an average of 28% in the past five years, and even if it is actively losing weight, it is still three times the size of 2017.
Bill George, a senior fellow at Harvard Business School, believes that Meta has over-recruited people and tried many different things, but Zuckerberg still doesn’t know what he wants from the company. Rebranding Facebook as Meta is also an important part of the company’s future development. For sure, maybe Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are mature enough to move into VR, but that hasn’t paid off yet.
Another engineer who has left Meta noted that the project they worked on at Meta was phased out after just a few months, while he was left floating and sinking at the company. He also believes that these bloated businesses and overstaffing have been Meta’s fatal flaws.
Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, admitted that “for Zuckerberg, the Meta layoffs are an ominous omen for dark days.” He believes that Zuckerberg must serve as chairman, give up the CEO job, and let a professional service as CEO, and split the roles of founder and CEO of Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Oracle, in order to continue to pursue the dream of Meta.
