Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing time on November 10 morning news, it is reported that in response to the slowdown in growth and shareholder dissatisfaction, Meta Platforms is prepared to lay off 13%, more than 11000 people, and freeze recruitment until the first quarter of next year, few departments have been spared.

People familiar with the matter said that even the Reality Labs department, which is in charge of meta-universe, could be hit by the layoffs. Meta's augmented reality and virtual reality products, as well as Oculus head displays and avatars are part of the department.

Meta CEO Mark Mark Zuckerberg's meta-universe project proved costly, confusing and slow, so widespread layoffs were expected months ago. It was reported last Sunday that Meta will start layoffs on Wednesday.

Previous reports suggested that the layoffs could affect the entire company and are expected to affect about 10% of employees. But the proportion of layoffs in some departments may be higher.

The first thing Meta employees do on Wednesday morning is to check their email to see if they are among the layoffs, according to people familiar with the matter.

As the platform with the largest number of users and the highest revenue under Meta, Facebook applications are also expected to be restructured. Facebook business functions such as marketing, partners and human resources "will be hit harder than other departments", according to posts on Fishbowl, a workplace social platform. The post added: "in some cases, even the entire department will be downgraded."

Facebook currently has about 87000 people, of which the engineering department accounts for a large proportion and has been the main force of expansion in the past two years. But the department will also be greatly affected by the layoffs, according to people familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for Meta declined to comment.

People familiar with the matter said Reality Labs was "Xiaoza's baby" and was likely to be less affected than other departments. But there is no denying that the meta-universe division is suffering huge losses, and investors and Wall Street have reacted negatively after the recent earnings release.

Two weeks ago, Zuckerberg announced that he was doubling his bet on meta-universe, which he thought would be the future of the Internet and Meta. But the market reaction was so negative that Meta's share price plummeted. Reality Labs has lost more than $9 billion so far this year and nearly $4 billion in the third quarter alone, according to the results. The unit lost $10 billion throughout 2021, but Meta says Reality Labs spending will continue to grow.

The day after the third-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg held a weekly internal question-and-answer session at which he answered several questions raised by employees. Asked about the company's share price, which is now less than $100, the CEO admitted that "investors are asking the company to do more", but he did not disclose specific plans.

People familiar with the matter said employees were not satisfied with Zuckerberg's statement. As a result, many people have asked managers about the Voluntary departure Agreement. As a result of Meta's recent "intensity increase" rules, the company provided "voluntary departure agreements" for some employees during recent performance reviews, allowing them to leave the company with severance pay before layoffs begin.

Meta managers told employees that they needed to "give 200 per cent of the effort", but could still be laid off. Nonetheless, most employees decided to wait and see the actual impact of the massive restructuring.

Some more experienced employees, such as industry elders who lived through the Great Recession and the early days of the dotcom bubble, are "better prepared" for what could happen this week, according to people familiar with the matter. At the same time, young workers, who know nothing about the bull market of the past decade, are under a lot of pressure from the coming layoffs and are "a little scared" about their future.

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