Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he is going to cut about 13% of employees. According to the businessman, his company will focus on fewer projects, which include the development of artificial intelligence and “metaworld”, reports ABC News.
Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will lay off 11,000 employees – about 13% of its workforce. According to the businessman, his company will also take “a number of additional steps to become more lean and efficient,” ABC News reported.
In a letter to employees, Zuckerberg said he went for “the most difficult change in Meta’s history.”
“I want to take responsibility for these decisions and for putting us in this situation. I know it’s hard for everyone, and I’m especially sorry for those who are affected,” he said.
Zuckerberg added that the company, which has cut its spending, including employee benefits, will shift its resources to “fewer high-priority areas.” These include developing artificial intelligence and developing a “meta-universe.”
“We’re restructuring teams to improve efficiency. But these measures alone won’t bring our costs in line with revenue growth, so I also made the difficult decision to lay people off,” the Meta head stressed.
He also tried to explain why his company had reached the point of massive layoffs.
“At the beginning of COVID, the world moved quickly online, and the surge in e-commerce led to excessive revenue growth. Many people predicted it would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic was over. That’s what I thought too, so I decided to significantly increase our investment,” Zuckerberg said.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t happen the way I expected. Online commerce has not returned to its previous momentum, and the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition and loss of advertising orders have caused our revenues to fall far short of expectations. I was wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” the businessman added.
Mass layoffs are not the first problem Meta has faced this year. In particular, investors strongly criticized the company because of large investments in the project “meta universe”, which has not yet brought significant profits, recalls ABC News.