Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has announced that it will lay off around 10,000 employees and eliminate about 5,000 open roles in its second major round of job cuts in the past six months.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the layoffs are part of the company’s “Year of Efficiency”, a strategy to streamline its operations and focus on its core products and priorities. He said the decision was “tough” but necessary to adapt to the current economic environment, which has been affected by inflation, supply chain disruptions and regulatory pressures.
The layoffs will be carried out in phases, starting with non-engineering roles and then moving to engineering teams. The company will also close some of its offices and reduce its spending on travel, events and marketing. Meta said it will provide severance packages and outplacement support to the affected employees.
The announcement comes four months after Meta laid off 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce, in November 2023. At that time, Zuckerberg said the company was facing a “significant slowdown” in its revenue growth due to changes in the online advertising market and increased competition from rivals such as TikTok and Snapchat.
Meta has also been dealing with various legal and reputational challenges, such as antitrust lawsuits, privacy scandals, whistleblower allegations and content moderation issues. The company recently rebranded itself as Meta to reflect its vision of building the Metaverse, a virtual reality platform that would connect people across different devices and applications.
Meta’s stock price fell by 3% after the news of the layoffs was released, adding to its 25% decline since the start of the year. Analysts said the company’s outlook remains uncertain as it faces multiple headwinds and transitions to a new business model.
