Meta Layoff Spree Expected to Continue in Zuckerberg’s Year of Efficiency’

Facebook parent Meta Platforms is preparing a new round of layoffs, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. 

The report claims that the tech giant could fire thousands of workers as soon as this week.

13% of Meta Staff Laid off Since November

In its previous round of layoffs, Meta eliminated 11,000 employees, marking its first-ever significant mass dismissal. The social media giant seems to be streamlining its operations amid larger market weakness. The new layoff is in addition to the previously axed reduction of 13% in November.

Numerous cutbacks are occurring in the technology sector. Tracking website Layoffs.fyi estimates that 123,882 employees at 454 tech firms have lost their jobs so far this year.

The report finds that the number of jobs lost so far has already surpassed 76.75% of 2022’s employment losses. Crypto businesses like Immutable, Polygon, Crypto.com, Blockchain.com, and Magic Eden have announced layoffs.

“Year of Efficiency” Aims at Resource Optimization

2023 was  the “Year of Efficiency” by Mark Zuckerberg in Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings released in February. At the time, Zuckerberg had said that Meta would stress removing middle management layers to make quicker decisions. He also said the company will be more “proactive on cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be crucial.”

It has become clear from the layoffs that the CEO wants managers to do more than manage. Mark Zuckerberg instructed them to participate in coding rather than just supervision last month. According to reports, Meta may “flatten” the organization’s corporate structure by demoting some managers and removing their teams.

The tech giant has been forced to reevaluate operations as a result of declining advertising income and rising costs and expenses at Meta. But the Metaverse continues to be the foundation. According to CNBC, Reality Labs, the company’s metaverse division, generated $727 million in revenue during the fourth quarter but also incurred an operating loss of $4.28 billion.

Metaverse Remains Crucial

Meta’s Reality Labs division experienced a total loss of $13.7 billion in 2022. Reality Labs is Meta Platforms’ business and development division, known to create augmented and virtual reality hardware and software. Despite the significant losses, the company’s top boss appears eager to move forward with the plans for the Metaverse

However, regulators could pose another hurdle for Meta. In a recent letter to CEO Zuckerberg, two Democratic lawmakers urged he refrains from making the Horizon Worlds metaverse app available to teens due to safety worries.

Last year, in an acceleration to its metaverse plans, Wayra and Meta jointly launched the Metaverse Activation Programme. Meta and Telefonica said they had created a program to support and scale startups in the Metaverse and the Web3 sector.

Recently, Zuckerberg also disclosed this month that the tech juggernaut would invest resources in building its own chatbot in response to the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.