Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, announced the layoff of 11,000 employees from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The bombastic news came this Wednesday (9), which was the group’s biggest cut to date. This number of layoffs corresponds to 13% of the workforce at Meta, which controls the largest social networks on the planet.

Zuckerberg announces the creation of the “Meta”: inflated billing caused cuts in the group – Photo: Reproduction / ND

In the statement, Zuckerberg accuses me, believing that he made a mistake in overestimating the group’s potential income. “I made a mistake and I take responsibility,” the executive said in a statement to employees.

“Our revenue was much lower than expected, but there was also a macroeconomic slowdown and increased competition,” Zuckerberg explained.

Another digital technology giant did something similar last Friday (4). On that day, Twitter announced that it was laying off half of its employees, down from 3,500 employees. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world – according to Forbes – acquired the social network at the end of October. Reducing the number of staff was one of the first steps since the billionaire took over the company.

goal in half

The numbers cited by Zuckerberg resulted in a 52% drop in Meta profits in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. Nevertheless, the revenue reached “only” US$4.4 billion. The reason may be factors such as stagnation in the number of users, in addition to a decrease in advertising revenue.