Hot focus: Meta starts the largest layoff, and more than 11000 people will be laid off

According to CNN, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, recently announced that it would lay off 13% of its employees, with a total number of layoffs of more than 11000. This is also the largest round of layoffs in the 18 year history of the technology giant.

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In recent years, Meta's core business has encountered a series of challenges, and its huge investment in the "meta universe" has failed to reap the expected return. From the perspective of the overall environment, in order to cope with inflation, rising interest rates, and worries about economic recession, Microsoft, Snap, Twitter and other technology companies are also trying to reduce costs and improve efficiency, taking various measures, including layoffs.

"Today, I will share some of the most difficult changes we are going to make in Meta's history." Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said in a blog post to employees, "I have decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11000 excellent employees leave the company."

Zuckerberg admitted that in the two years since the outbreak of the epidemic, Meta's recruitment speed has been too radical. By the end of September, Meta had employed 87314 employees worldwide, nearly twice the number of employees in March 2020 (48268).

"At the beginning of the epidemic, the surge of e-commerce brought huge income growth." Zuckerberg wrote, "Many people predicted that this would be a permanent acceleration, and even after the epidemic ended, it would continue. I also think so, so I decided to increase investment significantly. Unfortunately, things did not develop as we expected."

"Today, not only has online commerce resumed its previous trend, but also the macroeconomic downturn, intensified market competition, and declining advertising revenue have led to the company's revenue being far below my expectations... My judgment was wrong, and I need to take responsibility for it. I know that this is very difficult for everyone, especially those who are (layoffs) The affected employees are sorry. "

According to CNN, many of Meta's business departments will be affected by this round of layoffs, but its recruitment team will be particularly hard hit because "we plan to hire fewer people next year". Zuckerberg added that Meta's hiring freeze will be extended to the first quarter of next year.

Meta's core advertising business has been affected by changes in Apple's privacy policy. Many advertisers have reduced their budgets, and they have to face fierce competition from new competitors such as TikTok. At the same time, Meta spent billions of dollars to build a "meta universe", but the latter is far from being accepted by the public.

According to Meta's second quarter financial report, the technology giant's revenue has declined, and its profit has halved over the same period in 2021. Last year, Meta's market value exceeded $1 trillion, but now it has plummeted to about $250 billion.

Zuckerberg mentioned that the laid off workers in this round will receive the 16 week basic salary provided by Meta, and will also receive an additional two week salary for every full year of work (no upper limit). In addition, Meta will convert all the remaining paid annual leave of these employees into money and pay them, and bear the cost of medical insurance for them and their families for six months.

In addition to announcing the layoff plan, Zuckerberg also said that Meta is expected to "implement more cost cutting changes" in the coming months.

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