Meta Pauses More Hiring Efforts And Pulls Back On Product Investment

The parent company of Facebook will pull back on investments into developing certain products, including its service to compete with Zoom and other ecommerce features. 

Meta is also pausing its hiring efforts among engineers, recruiters, and data scientists. 

As a result, CEO Mark Zuckerberg attempted to ease fears of future layoffs during an all-hands meeting last week.  

“I can’t sit here and make a permanent ongoing promise that as things shift that we won’t have to reconsider that,” said Zuckerberg. “But what I can tell you is that as of where we sit today, our expectation is not that we’re going to have to do that. And instead, basically what we’re doing is we’re dialing growth to the levels that we think are going to be manageable over time.”  

More specifically, the company dialing back on the development of certain projects may have to do with its expected revenue dip, indicating that these products are not producing enough revenue to justify further investment. 

Teams impacted by the hiring freeze include engineers from Facebook Dating, Facebook Gaming, Messenger Kids, Commerce, and Remote Presence.  

Meta saw its shares fall 43% this year following a slew of bad news for the technology giant. At the end of last year, the firm confirmed that its daily active users tumbled. 

Even more, scrutiny from the public over the company’s impact on the mental health of teenagers came to light following allegations from whistleblower Frances Haugen, who previously worked as part of Facebook’s civic integrity team. 

Meta’s commitment to the metaverse has also caused investors to take pause, as the infancy of this concept makes its sustainability unclear.