In a weekly employee Q&A session, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reported company “experiencing one of the worst falls” [it has seen] According to Reuters, the executive revealed that Meta has cut its target number of new engineers by around 30 percent this year. Meta has previously said it has slowed its hiring plans due to poor revenue forecasts, but now Zuckerberg has revealed more details with exact figures. It seems that out of its plans to hire 10,000 new engineers this year, Meta will only hire between 6,000 and 7,000.
Also, the CEO said that Meta raises expectations for current employees and gives them more aggressive targets so they can decide for themselves if the company isn’t for them. “[S]The elf choice is fine with me,” he said. In a note to employees, chief product officer Chris Cox stressed that the company “has been having some serious times here and the headwinds are strong.” Metaverse ventures are set for the second half of the year, starting with Avatars and its virtual world, Horizon Worlds.
According to the memo published in full by BoundaryThe Meta also aims to monetize the Reels as quickly as possible. Time spent on reels has more than doubled worldwide since last year, with 80 percent of that growth coming from Facebook. Cox called Reels, the short-form video format created in response to TikTok, which was a “bright spot” for the company in the first half of 2022. Meta plans to continue improving the experience, including making changes to the home screen on Instagram, and Facebook will include videos in a more natural way.
In addition, Meta plans to focus on WhatsApp and Messenger alongside its AI initiatives in the second half of the year. It plans to test WhatApp communities before it becomes available worldwide at the end of 2022. The company will also develop Instagram Creator channels and composable chats, which are scheduled to be available in the coming months.
Cox wrote in the note:
“I must stress that we are living in serious times here and headwinds are strong. We must operate flawlessly in a slower growth environment where teams should not expect huge influx of new engineers and budgets. Measuring and understanding what is driving the impact, investing in developer efficiency and speed within the company, and He’s thoughtful about running leaner, more average, more exciting teams.”
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