revealed Meta Corporation (formerly Facebook) on its first major hiring freeze, in a move that signaled market nervousness over both the social media giant’s fundamental performance and its future direction.
The company, which was renamed “Meta” last year to demonstrate its focus on the new opportunities of the metaverse augmented reality unit, called on its employees to prepare for the economic downturn. As part of this shift in sentiment, founder Mark Zuckerberg said the company will adjust its goal of hiring 10,000 engineers, to between 6,000 and 7,000.
Zuckerberg also hinted at the possibility of staff cuts, saying: “Realistically, there might be a group of people in the company who shouldn’t be here.”
He added, “My hope is that when I raise the bar and set more aggressive goals, I will see some of you withdraw from the company because it has become unsuitable for him.”
An audio recording obtained by Archyde.com indicated that Meta was preparing for a significant decline in financial and economic activity, which Zuckerberg blamed on the war in Ukraine.
The company hopes that ads on metaverse will generate a significant amount of revenue. At the moment, it is very focused on co-creating and hosting branded content experiences, as is the case with the Fender and BMW experiences launched during Cannes.
Nevertheless, the company’s report for the first quarter of 2022 was mostly positive. This latest shift in the scale of its ambitions is likely an attempt to correct in the face of mounting headwinds.