People in the tech industry just can’t seem to catch a break recently. Besides Twitter, Meta is also planning another round of layoffs to further help it rationalize costs amid a highly turbulent economic time. According to Bloomberg, Meta’s set to cut thousands of employees within the week. This comes on the back of Meta already culling around 11k roles last November.
Freshly Cut
Meta never fails to mention Apple’s ATT update because that thing really screwed them over. They had tagged it as the key reason for its initial job cuts, with many users opting out of data tracking within Meta’s apps, heavily impacting its capacity to effectively target ads. Meta says that the update cost them an estimated $10 billion loss in ad revenue in 2022.
However, since then, Meta’s automated ad targeting systems have improved, with the company posting a more positive outlook for its ad business in its Q4 results just last month. However, the Metaverse isn’t catching on as much as Meta had hoped it would. Symbolize by its corporate name change, Zuck and Co. have gone all-in on the concept of the Metaverse being an alternate reality of sorts, which incorporates AR, VR, and everything in between. So far, Meta investors have been far less enamored by the concept, which has played its part in this new push to reduce overall organizational costs, complexity, and middle management.
Zuckerberg also mentioned in Meta’s Q4 update about ‘flattening the company’s organizational structure’ and reducing layers of management. As a result, some roles will have to be discarded as they are no longer required. Meanwhile, Meta’s also reshuffling its priorities to focus more on AI and developing generative AI elements, as opposed to solely focusing all of its resources on AR and VR development, however, those will continue to be key targets.
“In the short term, we’ll focus on building creative and expressive tools. Over the longer term, we’ll focus on developing AI personas that can help people in a variety of ways. We’re exploring experiences with text (like cat in WhatsApp and Messenger), with images (like creative Instagram filters and ad formats), and with video and multi-modal experiences.”
Not to mention, Meta also continues to tussle with declining eCommerce rates, resulting in the abandonment of several key projects. Just last month, Meta announced the removal of live shopping elements on Instagram, which had once been a key growth area, with many experts even touting that the pandemic would only lead to a bigger online shopping boom.
The Wrap
That did happen, for a while at least, until physical stores eventually re-opened. Meta already cut the various roles tied to its online shopping tools, and likely continues to be a consideration in this new batch of cullings. The company is currently undergoing a time of reflection, which is already on the cusp of its new phase. AI will now seemingly play a bigger part in this, but you must also consider that Meta had always relied on the latest trends. The real question is whether or not it can maintain whatever growth it acquired even after the trend fades out.
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