MARK Zuckerberg is firing more than 11,000 Meta staff after admitting he got the social network’s growth plan wrong.
The company – which includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – will see 13 per cent of its 87,000-person global workforce gone.
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Zuck, 38, described the painful move as “the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history”.
“I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted,” he told staff on Wednesday.
Meta has been hit by soaring costs and a weaker advertising market, which it heavily relies on to make money.
The social network has also taken a massive gamble with Zuckerberg’s metaverse dream, ploughing billions into the project.
It’s the first set of broad job cuts in Meta’s 18-year history.
Other tech giants are going through a similar squeeze, including Twitter which recently let go of around 7,500 people – around half its workforce – as part of Elon Musk’s $44billion takeover.
Unlike most companies, Facebook was one of the few winners during Covid as the world depended on online platforms.
But Zuckerberg admits he was wrong to significantly increase investments, believing Meta‘s surge during the pandemic would continue.
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“I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” he said.
“We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint.
“We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency.
“But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go.”
Most affected staff will be frozen out from Meta’s top secret systems today, with the exception of their emails.
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