This week, Mr. Zuckerberg stated in an internal meeting that the tech giant was experiencing one of the “worse downturns that we’ve seen in recent history.”
THE SAN FRANCISCO — Buckle up for challenging days ahead, Mark Zuckerberg has a message for the Meta team.
According to recordings of his remarks provided to The New York Times, Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Silicon Valley startup Meta, stated during an internal meeting on Thursday that the company was experiencing one of the “biggest downturns that we’ve seen in recent history.” He warned the 77,800 employees of Meta that they will be judged more harshly than before and that they should get ready to undertake more work with less resources.
The business, which controls Facebook, Instagram, and other apps, is decreasing its hiring goals, Mr. Zuckerberg continued. From a previous goal of about 10,000, Meta now expects to hire 6,000 to 7,000 additional engineers this year, he said. According to him, hiring will completely stop in some places, particularly for junior engineers, but it will pick up in other sectors of the company.
On the call, Mr. Zuckerberg added, “I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me. In actuality, quite a few employees of the corporation definitely have no business being there.
The C.E.O.’s remarks, which were some of the harshest ones he has ever delivered to employees, show how much difficulties Meta is having operating its business. The business, which for many years saw financial growth, has faltered this year and has found itself in an uncomfortable situation. It saw rapid growth in the early stages of the pandemic, but more recently, when inflation and interest rates rose, it has had to deal with economic turmoil on a worldwide scale.
While navigating turmoil in its primary social networking and advertising businesses, Meta is feeling the effects of economic instability. Last year, Mr. Zuckerberg stated that his organisation, which was renamed Meta from Facebook, was placing a long-term wager to create the immersive universe known as the “metaverse.” The initiative has cost him billions of dollars, which has hurt Meta’s earnings.
Apple’s privacy modifications to its mobile operating system, which restrict the amount of user data that Facebook and Instagram can acquire, have also dealt a blow to the company’s advertising division.
As a result, Meta has seen consecutive earnings reductions this year for the first time in more than ten years. Following a poor financial report in February, Meta’s shares fell 26% and its market value fell by more than $230 billion, marking the largest one-day wipeout in the history of the firm. The company informed its staff that it will be reducing or removing complimentary services like dry cleaning and washing in March.
According to a copy of the memo seen to The Times, Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer, echoed Mr. Zuckerberg’s comments in a memo to employees on Thursday, saying that the company was facing “difficult times” and that the economy was facing “fierce headwinds.”
In a slower-growth environment where teams shouldn’t anticipate significant inflows of new engineers and funding, we must perform flawlessly, according to Mr. Cox’s memo. We need to set more strict priorities, think carefully about monitoring and analysing what has an impact, invest in the company’s developer efficiency and velocity, and run smaller, meaner, better-performing teams.
Reuters previously reported on the remarks made to staff by Mr. Cox and Mr. Zuckerberg. According to a Meta spokeswoman, Mr. Cox’s memo confirmed what the company had previously stated in earnings calls and that it had been honest about its “challenges” and “opportunities.”
One staff member who viewed the videoconferenced internal meeting on Thursday claimed that Mr. Zuckerberg’s remarks looked to be the result of irritation. The employee, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to talk, said that Mr. Zuckerberg paused and pondered aloud how to respond to the topic after someone questioned whether the firm would continue having “Meta Days” in 2022, an internal term for paid time off holidays.
The corporation needs to “turn up the heat” on internal goals and measures used to evaluate staff performance, the CEO continued, adding that the organisation needed to crack down and work harder than it has previously. He stated that he anticipated some turnover from workers who weren’t accomplishing those goals and that some workers would quit due to the accelerated pace.
But Mr. Zuckerberg emphasised that he was not only concerned with earnings and was not opposed to investing a lot of money on long-term initiatives. He mentioned the work that will be done over the course of the next ten or more years to create goods for virtual and augmented reality.
In his message, Mr. Cox also stated that Meta was still concentrating on funding Reels, the prominently promoted TikTok-like video product on Instagram, as well as using artificial intelligence to aid in the discovery of viral content on Facebook and Instagram. According to him, Meta is also attempting to monetize its messaging services and is searching for other chances to increase platform-wide e-commerce sales.
Internal recruiters at Meta claimed that this year’s hiring at the company halted after a spike in new hires during the outbreak. According to two recruiters who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters, the corporation was primarily filling critical responsibilities and many other roles were filled internally.
Two people with knowledge of the company’s plans, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to talk, said there are no present plans to fire employees. According to comments that one of the employees described to The Times, some employees said they were happy to be shedding the “dead weight” after feeling that the “bar was lowered” for hiring over the course of the pandemic. The comments were made in chat room channels that accompanied the live broadcast of the employee meeting.
