Meta is planning yet another round of layoffs that could affect thousands of employees.
In addition to the 13 percent of Meta employees who were laid off as part of a major cost-cutting plan announced in November, the job cuts could begin this week.
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Meta, has previously stated that the social networking giant would be focusing its efforts this year on efforts to cut costs, referring to 2023 as the “Year of Efficiency.” In February, he informed analysts that Meta intends to “remove layers of middle management to make decisions faster” and is concentrating on “cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be crucial.”
The consumer technology company said that its costs and expenses increased by 22% year-over-year to $25.8 billion during the fourth quarter, while overall sales decreased by 4% to $32 billion. The efforts to cut costs come at a difficult time for the company.
A challenging digital advertising market, the lingering effects of Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy update, and increased competition from TikTok, owned by ByteDance, continue to pose challenges for Meta’s core online advertising business.
The metaverse, which Meta believes could be the next frontier for mainstream computing, continues to receive significant investment from the company. The Reality Labs division of the company, which is responsible for developing the virtual reality and augmented reality technologies necessary for the metaverse, reported a $4.28 billion operating loss in the fourth quarter.
Zuckerberg has stated that he views layoffs as “a last resort,” and that he will “take responsibility” for the company’s previously announced cost-cutting plans.
“We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency,” Zuckerberg said last fall when Meta announced layoffs. “But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go.”
