Days after Twitter announced massive layoffs across its global operations, Facebook’s parent company Meta today announced they would fire more than 11,000 employees to reduce costs. This comes after disappointing earnings and a drop in revenues.
“Today, I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history. I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13 per cent and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go,” said Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in a blog post.
Zuckerberg apologised to Meta employees. “I want to take accountability for these decisions, and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted,” he said.
While the company did not give country-specific details, sources said the impact on Meta’s India operations is likely to be minimal because the company has been doing well here. Meta’s revenues in India crossed $2 billion for the first time during the year ending March 2022.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, reported gross ad revenue of ₹16,189 crore, growing at 74 per cent year-on-year. Globally, Meta posted third-quarter earnings of $4.39 billion, down from $9.2 billion. Meta’s flagship platform Facebook has been losing users in the face of competition from the likes of TikTok, and the company’s pivot to the metaverse is yet to bear fruit.
Overall, the tech industry is worried about a global economic slowdown due to inflation and other factors, with Google and Microsoft both announcing disappointing third-quarter results recently.
Meta’s head of human resources, Lori Goler, said employees who lose their jobs will be provided with at least four months of salary as severance package.
