Facebook Group Meta cuts 10,000 more jobs

In addition, about 5,000 open positions will no longer be filled, Zuckerberg announced Tuesday. The cuts will continue over the coming months, he wrote in an email to employees. In November, Meta had already cut 11,000 jobs (Werbewoche.ch reported). At that time, that was around 13 percent of the workforce.

In recent months, following Meta's lead, other online giants such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft thousands of jobs - after they had hired new employees on a large scale during the boom for their business in the Corona pandemic.

The Facebook Group is now the first of them to resort to a second major round of layoffs. Zuckerberg had proclaimed 2023 the "Year of Efficiency.

Massive expansion of personnel in pandemic

In the pandemic, many small businesses booked ads on Facebook to boost their business. Meta was earning well and also hiring heavily. By the end of 2019, the group had 45,000 employees, up from more than 87,000 at the time of the November 2022 job cuts.

Zuckerberg acknowledged in the email to employees published Tuesday that such upheavals create "uncertainty and stress" in a company. He said he hopes to implement the changes as quickly as possible so that this period of uncertainty can be put behind them as soon as possible.

In the coming months, managers will present reorganization plans, Zuckerberg wrote about the further schedule. The goal is to make the hierarchies flatter, to discontinue low-priority projects and to slow down the pace of new hires.

Layoffs in the technology sector

Layoffs are to be announced in April in the technology area and in May on the business side. Jobs are also to be cut internationally.

The Financial Times wrote Tuesday that the next round of layoffs is expected to affect the policy, marketing and communications departments more than others.

Meta is feeling the pinch from advertisers who are watching their money more closely. Also, the app Tiktok is a strong rival in the battle for advertising dollars - and Apple's privacy measures on the iPhone made ads on Facebook less effective.

Many billions for the metaverse

At the same time, Zuckerberg is investing many billions in the development of virtual "metaverse" worlds. Last year alone, the corresponding Reality Labs division posted an operating loss of a good $13.7 billion.

Already on Tuesday night, Meta announced that after the former hype around digital collectibles, Facebook and Instagram will now discontinue the features around the so-called NFTs again.

The step is part of the ongoing focus on priorities, wrote the responsible manager Stephane Kasriel on Twitter. Among other things, the option to share NFTs via Instagram and Facebook will be eliminated in the coming weeks, a spokesperson explained to the technology blog The Verge. (SDA)