Meta to Slash Jobs Across Its 3 Social Platforms

Meta is reportedly readying layoffs that will impact its flagship social media platforms.

The company told managers to be prepared for layoff announcements Wednesday (April 19), with the cuts affecting Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Bloomberg News reported, citing an internal company memo.

According to the memo, Realty Labs, Meta’s virtual reality arm, will also be impacted. A spokesperson referred PYMNTS’ request for comment to a blog post by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month announcing this latest round of layoffs.

Those cuts are part of a broader cost-cutting push as Zuckerberg tries to move the company through its “year of efficiency.” More job cuts are planned for next month, the Bloomberg report said.

Meta announced in March that it was eliminating 10,000 jobs after laying off 11,000 workers in November of last year in the first wide-ranging job cuts in company history. It also plans to freeze hiring for an additional 5,000 open roles.

Zuckerberg said last month that the company will focus on profitability as it navigates an evolving global economy, increased competitive pressure and stagnating growth.

“At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years,” he wrote in a message to employees.

“Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation. Given this outlook, we’ll need to operate more efficiently than our previous headcount reduction to ensure success.”

The company’s job cuts are part of a broader trend of tech industry layoffs, with firms such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and — on a smaller scale — Apple all shedding jobs in recent months.

But as PYMNTS wrote in March, Meta’s troubles are somewhat unique due to its efforts to jumpstart the metaverse that gave it its name. Since 2019, Meta has recorded a loss of more than $30 billion on the project. In 2022, the company reportedly lost six times more money than it made from the metaverse as it tried to entice users to get on board.

Nonetheless, Zuckerberg has said that Meta will invest 20% of its revenues in the metaverse each year going forward.

“There’s only one problem,” wrote PYMNTS’ Karen Webster. “Most people — as in mostly all of them — don’t want to give up the physical world to live mainly via avatars in a virtual one.  Even though most — as in mostly all of them — very much want to use technology to improve their interactions with people and businesses in the physical world where they live right now.”