Meta is planning large-scale job cuts thousands of people

　US Meta, which operates the SNS (exchange site) “Facebook” $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ The US Wall Street Journal reported on November 6 that they are planning large-scale personnel cuts. The technology industry in the United States achieved rapid growth during the novel coronavirus global pandemic (pandemic), but recently there has been a growing movement to reduce personnel. Among them, it is said that there is a possibility that it will be the largest layoff (temporary dismissal).
■ Meta CEO “Focus on high-priority growth areas”
　According to people familiar with the situation, the target audience is expected to reach several thousand people. It is said that it will be announced as early as 11/9 US time. Meta has instructed employees to cancel unnecessary and urgent business trips from this week onwards. The Wall Street Journal reports that it will be the first large-scale staff reduction in Meta's 18-year history.
　A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, but mentioned the recent statement by CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Chief Executive Officer) that “we will concentrate investments in a small number of high-priority growth fields.”
　CEO Zuckerberg stated at the telephone conference announcing financial results for the fiscal year ending 22/7/9 that “some teams will grow meaningfully, but most others will not change or shrink over the next year,” and “overall, the organization size at the end of 2023 is almost the same as now, or is expected to shrink slightly.”
■ Number of employees: 87,000, up 28% from the previous year
　Meta, like other tech giants, increased personnel during the pandemic. According to the Wall Street Journal, the total number of Meta staff increases in 2020 and 21 was 27,000. In '22, 15,344 people were newly hired by the end of September. According to Meta's financial data, the number of employees worldwide as of the end of September '22 was 88,314, an increase of 28% from 1 year ago.
　Meta's stock price has fallen 70% since the beginning of '22. The company explains that the economic slowdown is the cause of sluggish performance, but investors are concerned about rising costs and sluggishness in the main SNS business. American SNS companies, starting with Meta, are facing intensifying competition with the video application “TikTok (TikTok)” originating in China. Additionally, due to advertisement regulations aimed at privacy protection introduced by Apple in the US, user narrowing down accuracy decreased and advertisement effects declined.
■ Metaverse business continues to be in the red
　The metaverse-related business “Reality Labs (Reality Labs),” where CEO Zuckerberg has confidence as the “next computer foundation,” continues to be in the red. The operating deficit for the fiscal year ending 22/7/9 was 3.672 billion dollars (about 540 billion yen), which expanded from the deficit of 2,631 million dollars (about 390 billion yen) in the same period last year.
　According to the Wall Street Journal, the total cost invested in the same project from the beginning of '21 to the present amounts to 15 billion dollars (about 2.21 trillion yen).
　Under these circumstances, there was a growing demand from “talking shareholders” to reduce investment in the metaverse business and reduce labor costs.
　Major US technology companies are moving to reduce personnel due to concerns about a recession. On November 2, it was revealed that Amazon.com in the US will stop hiring new office workers for several months. Prior to this, in October, the company had decided to freeze recruitment of office jobs by the end of the year in its main retail division, but this measure will be extended to other divisions. Also, US Twitter, which was acquired by American entrepreneur Elon Musk at the end of October, carried out a layoff targeting about half of all employees on November 4.