The giant Meta -parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger- closes a “year to forget” with the failure of the metaversolayoffs of more than 10,000 workers and a big fall in the stock market.
In the first nine months of the year -the data for the last quarter are not yet known- Meta it earned 18,547 million dollars, which represents a drop of 36% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The giant also revised down its outlook for the year as a whole.
“A year to forget”
Vasant Dhar, professor of Technology, Operations and Statistics at New York University, indicates that 2022 is a year that Meta he would “like to forget”.
The expert points out that the company’s turbulent year is not due to a single problem, but a “series of problems”, such as: stricter policies to regulate the internet, pressure from the US Congress. UU. so that the networks social networks moderate their content more and the low popularity of metaverso.
These problems and poor business results, added to an unfavorable economic environment, have caused the value of the company’s shares to go from $338.54 at the beginning of January to $117.12 at the end of this week.
Too much optimism after the pandemic
Tech companies thrived during the coronavirus pandemic, especially social media, due to the amount of free time people had on their hands, but the post-pandemic period did not sit well with them, which was reflected in business results.
MetaLike other tech giants, it went on a hiring spree during the pandemic, adding more than 27,000 employees to its workforce between 2020 and 2021 and another 15,344 in the first nine months of this year.
However, this fall Meta announced that it would lay off about 13% of its workforce, about 11,000 workers.
“Many people predicted that 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. Unfortunately, this did not turn out as expected,” he reflected in a published statement. in november the CEO of MetaMark Zuckerberg.
Meta continues investment in the metaverse
Meta continues with his plans to popularize the metaversoas detailed this week by the technological director of MetaAndrew Bosworth, indicating that the company wants to spend as much in the division of metaverso next year as it did this year, despite a reported operating loss of $9.4 billion for the first nine months of the year.
“I can confidently say that after one of the most difficult years in the company’s history, Meta remains as committed to our vision for the future as we were the day we announced it,” Bosworth said in a statement.
In addition, the CTO announced that about 80% of the overall investments of Meta will support the core business, and the other 20% will go to Reality Labs, its metaverse division.
Dhar notes that 20% in absolute terms equates to about a billion a month and that this is “a very high-risk strategy,” especially considering that Horizon Worlds, the metaverse of Metadoes not meet internal performance expectations, as indicated in October The Wall Street Journal, medium that had access to internal company documents. (EFE)
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