Meta is trying to improve its business model by hiring less people and being more efficient, and it is also trying to move the metaverse toward a long-term vision.
Meta, the biggest social media company in the US, is cutting jobs to stay competitive and keep investing in the metaverse. This is because the US economy is having trouble. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Meta, said on March 14 that the company will fire 10,000 people in 2023 to make it run more efficiently.
Zuckerberg said that Meta’s main goals are to improve its technology skills and make more money, even though the economy in the country is bad. These steps are in line with the long-term goals of the company.
He also said that for the company to reach its goals, it needs to improve productivity and developer tools. By streamlining its operations, it must also get rid of processes and jobs that aren’t necessary.
“In the coming months, our organizational leaders will unveil restructuring plans aimed at flattening our organizations, scrapping lower-priority projects, and lowering our recruitment rates. Given this hiring reduction, I have made the tough decision to further cut down the size of our recruiting team.”
Huge Layoffs Start Tomorrow
Meta’s CEO said that the latest round of layoffs, which will start tomorrow and last for three months and affect 10,000 people, will start tomorrow. The company also said that it would be getting rid of 5,000 jobs.
“Overall, we anticipate reducing our team size by roughly 10,000 people and closing about 5,000 other unfilled positions.”
Because of this, a large number of the people on the recruitment team may be fired, and they will be told on March 15th.
Also, the company gave hints that there would be more layoffs and restructuring in the technology team by the end of April. Late in May, the last group of people on the business team will be let go.
Zuckerberg warned that the layoffs could last all year, even if it means letting go of talented employees who helped the company do well.
Meta’s Metaverse Emphasis is Long-Term
Meta plans to get rid of the multiple management levels by making many managers become individual contributors. This will make the company more flexible and effective. Zuckerberg says that this method would make it easier for workers to share information quickly, since managers don’t need more than ten direct reports.
“We believe that managing each person is essential, so we generally don’t want managers to have more than ten direct reports.”
Head of Commerce and Financial Technologies at Meta Platforms, Stéphane Kasriel, said on March 13 that the company would stop supporting non-fungible token (NFT) projects in favor of other projects that help content creators.
Kasriel said that Meta would keep helping content creators who use the company’s social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, to show off their NFT collections. Still, the company is ending projects that aren’t making money after Reality Labs lost a staggering $13.7 billion on key metaverse projects.
Meta has made it clear, though, that the bad end of its NFT business does not mean it is changing directions. AI is now the main focus of the company, while developing the metaverse is still a long-term, more complicated goal.
Meta’s decision to lay off workers shows how hard the economy is for many businesses right now. The company’s decision to put the metaverse at the top of its list of priorities is in line with its long-term goals and could pay off big time in the future.
