Zuckerberg says his 'fault' Meta has to lay off 11,000 employees

Chief of Meta Mark Zuckerberg, who announced that the social media giant will lay off nearly 11,000 employees, which make up around 13% of the total staff, admitted that it was his fault the company had to go cut jobs. He said he had been "overoptimistic" about the growth of the company.

“At the start of COVID, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth,” Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post published on Meta's website. 

“Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments," he added.

However, he said that the plan did not "unfortunately play out the way" he expected.

Meta boss stated that with the layoffs, the firm was to become "leaner and more efficient". The company would use its resources in "a smaller number of high-priority growth areas" like AI, metaverse, and even ads. He added that the team most affected by the cuts would the recruiting team which would be "disproportionately affected".

Due to a sharp downturn in the US economy, companies' momentum has been affected. Meta has strong rivals and it needs to take measures to bring things on the right track soon, reported The Verge. With Apple squeezing Meta's ad business horribly and TikTok taking over social media, Meta is concerned about its future. 

In 2022 alone, Meta lost $9.4 billion on its metaverse technology though Zuckerberg seems to have faith in the project and believes it will take over the world in a decade. 

The company's stock price was affected, dropping by over 70% this year. As a result, the giant lost $700 billion in market value in the past few weeks.

Zuckerberg said in his blog post that Meta's US employees being fired would receive at least four months' base salary. They will also receive health insurance for the next six months and support to find new jobs.

“I believe we are deeply underestimated as a company today,” Zuckerberg wrote towards the end of the blog. 

“Billions of people use our services to connect, and our communities keep growing. Our core business is among the most profitable ever built with huge potential ahead. And we’re leading in developing the technology to define the future of social connection and the next computing platform.”

This is the first time Meta has announced such broad job cuts since it came into being in 2004.