Meta reportedly mulls making fresh round of layoffs

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is reportedly planning to make new rounds of cuts around March following a massive layoff of 11,000 staff last November.

This comes after emerging reports such as Forbes and Financial Times revolve around speculations of further staff cuts within the company in the upcoming month, as Meta is currently going through performance reviews of employees.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Meta for a statement. 

Don't miss: Meta lays off 11,000 staff, Zuckerberg says he 'got this wrong'

Previously, the company shook the industry at the tail end of 2022 when it announced its axe of 13% of its global headcount, amounting up to 11,000 staff. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees that it was also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending its hiring freeze through the first quarter of this year.

While it is making reductions in every organisation across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs, recruiting will be "disproportionately affected" since it is planning to hiring fewer individuals this year. Meta is also restructuring its business teams more substantially. Meta's spokesperson declined to comment on what this means for the teams in Asia Pacific.

Zuckerberg also took accountability for these decisions and for how the company got to this situation. "I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted," he said. He explained that when everyone moved online during COVID-19 and eCommerce surged, many including himself predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way he expected.

"Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that," he said. 

On the other hand, Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously called 2023 the "Year of Efficiency” for Meta as the company focuses on “becoming a stronger and more nimble organisation”. The news sent stocks surging by 19%.

In its quarterly statement, the company said it expects the first quarter total revenue to be in the range of US$26 billion to US$28.5 billion, and it anticipates that the full-year 2023 total expenses will be in the range of US$89 billion to US$95 billion, lowered from its prior outlook of US$94-US$100 billion.

The report also said that ad impressions and price per ad across its family of apps increased by 23% year-over-year, and the average price per ad decreased by 22% year-over-year. For the full year 2022, ad impressions increased by 18% year-over-year and the average price per ad decreased by 16% year-over-year.  Meanwhile, monetisation for Reels on Facebook also reportedly doubled in the last six months.

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