Meta warns employees of ‘serious times’ ahead in internal Facebook memo
Chief Product Officer Chris Cox warned employees at Facebook-parent Meta that company must be disciplined, should prioritize ruthlessly
Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc is bracing for a leaner second half of the year, as it copes with macroeconomic pressures and data privacy hits to its ads business, according to an internal memo quoted by Reuters on Thursday.
The company must "operate leaner, meaner, better executing teams," Chief Product Officer Chris Cox wrote in the memo, which appeared on the company's internal discussion forum Workplace.
The Meta executive added that the company is in “serious times here and the headwinds are fierce,” underscoring that its challenges aren’t likely to vanish anytime soon.
Cox reiterated statements made by Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg during a call with analysts as part of the company’s first quarter earnings report, which detailed the negative impact to the company’s business caused by a privacy update Apple made to the iPhone last year.
To make up for the effects of last year’s Apple privacy update, which decreased the company’s ability to target ads, Meta will invest in Instagram Reels, its TikTok competitor, as well as shopping and messaging features.
Cox in the memo called for the need to execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets.
Meta also plans to invest in features that would make it easier for retailers to show ads to customers on its family of apps, and for employees communicate with businesses through messaging.
Tech companies across the board have scaled back their ambitions in anticipation of a possible U.S. recession, although the slide in stock price at Meta has been more severe than at competitors Apple and Google.
On Thursday, Meta shares were relatively flat in after-hours trading at USD 161.10.
The world's biggest social media company lost about half its market value this year, after Meta reported that daily active users on its flagship Facebook app had experienced a quarterly decline for the first time.
Its austerity drive comes at a tricky time, coinciding with two major strategic pivots: one aimed at re-fashioning its social media products around "discovery" to beat back competition from short-video app TikTok, the other an expensive long-term bet on augmented and virtual reality technology.
Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc has also cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Thursday, as he warned them to brace for a deep economic downturn.
"If I had to bet, I'd say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we've seen in recent history," Zuckerberg told workers in a weekly employee Q&A session, audio of which was heard by Reuters.
Meta has reduced its target for hiring engineers in 2022 to around 6,000-7,000, down from an initial plan to hire about 10,000 new engineers, Zuckerberg said.
Meta confirmed hiring pauses in broad terms last month, but exact figures have not previously been reported.
In addition to reducing hiring, he said, the company was leaving certain positions unfilled in response to attrition and "turning up the heat" on performance management to weed out staffers unable to meet more aggressive goals.
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
MoreLess
First Published:1 Jul 2022, 02:07 PM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High