• Meta lays off 11,000 employees across board after disappointing earnings

    Business
    Meta lays off 11,000 employees across board after disappointing earnings
    This past summer, Meta recorded its first-ever quarterly sales decrease, which was followed by a larger decline in the following season.

    Digital Desk: CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a memo to staff on Wednesday that Facebook parent company Meta is eliminating 11,000 jobs, or approximately 13% of its workforce, as it struggles with declining sales and larger digital sector problems.

    The action was taken a week after Twitter's new owner, billionaire Elon Musk, laid off a large number of employees.

    Because more individuals stayed at home and read on their phones and laptops during the pandemic lockdown period, Meta, like other social media sites, benefited financially.

    However, as the lockdowns ended and people resumed going outside, the growth of income decreased.

    The downturn in the economy and the unfavourable forecast for internet advertising, by far Meta's largest source of income, have added to the company's problems.

    This past summer, Meta recorded its first-ever quarterly sales decrease, which was followed by a larger decline in the following season.

    While some of the sufferings are special to the company, other parts are related to more general economic and technical causes.

    About half of Twitter's 7,500 employees were let go last week as part of a chaotic reorganisation after Musk's appointment as CEO.

    Although he did not disclose specifics regarding the losses, he tweeted that there had "no choice but to terminate the workers when the company is losing over $4M/day."

    By investing over $10 billion annually in the metaverse while shifting its attention away from social media, Meta has alarmed investors.

    According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, cell phones will someday be replaced by the metaverse, an immersive digital world.

    The marketers on Meta are preparing for a possible downturn.

    Another issue is that Apple's privacy tools make it harder for social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snap to monitor users without their permission and serve them adverts.

    TikTok's competition is also becoming more and more of a concern as younger users prefer the video-sharing app to Instagram, which Meta also owns.