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

Beijing time, November 10, nothing is eternal, especially in the world of science and technology. The CEO of American tech giants may now have a deep understanding of this, but it is ordinary employees who are paying the price.

Zuckerberg says he made a mistake. With the tech giant laying off thousands of employees, the US technology industry is now in the midst of a "massacre". Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and Salesforce, the customer relationship management software giant, joined the ranks of mass layoffs this week, and Meta laid off 11000 jobs on Wednesday. Prior to this, Twitter, Oracle, Netflix, Stripe, Snap and other companies have made layoffs.

Collective mistakes these companies are in a variety of industries, but they have one thing in common: when the COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand for digital products and services, they grew rapidly. but when people's lives relatively return to normal, rising interest rates and inflation bring their good days to an abrupt end, they are caught off guard.

"at the beginning of 2020, when COVID-19 first broke out, the world turned rapidly to the line, and the surge in e-commerce brought huge revenue growth. many people predict that this will be a permanent acceleration, even after the end of the pandemic." "I think so, so I decided to significantly increase our investment," Zuckerberg said in a layoff letter to employees. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out as I expected. "

He is not the only one who made a mistake. Many other tech celebrities have recently expressed similar ideas. "We live in a world where we are overrecruited," the founder of Stripe, a payments company, said in a recent memo to employees. The company announced that it would cut 1000 jobs, or 14% of its workforce.

Misjudge the situation. So, here comes the problem. How do these top technology executives, who are often seen as tested, smart and capable business leaders with access to a lot of valuable data, seriously misjudge the situation?

At first, they did feel the crisis. In the first few days of the outbreak, some companies suspended hiring or layoffs to save costs, which they had thought would depress the economy. " It will take us quite a long time to be sure that the virus is under control, and it may take several quarters, "Sequoia Capital, a veteran venture capital firm, wrote in a memo in March 2020. warn startups that there will be difficult times ahead, and that the global economic recovery will take longer. Some of you may experience weak demand and may face supply challenges. "

However, the actual situation is developing in the opposite direction. The epidemic has prompted people to spend more time shopping online, watching videos and playing games on YouTube or TikTok, and generally pouring money into technology. Subsequently, the share prices of technology companies soared and startups raised an eye-popping amount of capital. Even the long-depressed PC industry has ushered in some degree of revival as people buy new equipment for home work.

As a result, this sudden shift makes technology companies feel like a second opportunity, an opportunity to strike while the iron is hot and pursue their ambitions. At that time, interest rates were low, valuations were high, and telecommuting provided companies with unprecedented access to talent, which felt like a critical moment in the history of technology. Tech leaders such as Oracle founder Larry Ellison even praised Zoom, a videoconferencing tool, as a "basic service" that permanently upended the work world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom was the darling of the market.

However, there have long been signs that such good days will not last forever. Almost a year ago, Zoom reported growth well below Wall Street expectations. This is a sign that the availability of vaccines and the gradual reopening of the global economy will lead to reduced reliance on technology. So, to some extent, it is understandable that founders like Zuckerberg invest with the same mindset that the world has changed forever.

But nothing lasts forever. These gambles eventually cost thousands of people their livelihoods, and technological immigrants are even at risk of being deported from the United States. It's a positive that Zuckerberg and other CEO are taking responsibility for their mistakes. But these tech leaders say they didn't see it coming, showing astonishing naivety, naivety at best and lack of foresight at worst.

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