Photo Credit: Roman Martyniuk
Meta has announced an additional round of 10,000 layoffs and a pivot away from NFTs.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote the move is one to streamline the company in terms of efficiency. It is also freezing hiring for 5,000 open roles. “Over the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates,” Zuckerberg says in his post on Facebook.
Apparently one of those ‘low priority projects’ is NFT integration announced for Facebook and Instagram. Meta announced NFT integration for the two social networks in November 2022—already late to the hype surrounding the new technology.
“Across the company, we’re looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus. We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” says Stephane Kasriel.
The news of a second round of layoffs has hit employees hard. Those in recruiting will learn if they’re impacted as early as this week, while tech roles will know in April and business roles will learn in May. This is the second round of layoffs, bringing Meta’s total to 21,000 people laid off in recent months.
“At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years,” his post continues. “Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation,” his post continues.
The news of Zuckerberg’s layoffs at Meta follows a rough week in tech following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. It is the largest bank in the United States to fail since the 2008 crisis and did business with much of the tech sector. Roblox, Roku, and Etsy were just a handful of companies impacted by the fallout. Meanwhile, other tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Spotify, and PayPal have cut staff.