Due to weak forecast revenue, Meta is slowing down its hiring plans. With the new announcement from Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company will only hire between 6,000 and 7,000 instead of its initial plan to hire 10,000 new engineers this year, as per Engadget report.
Reuters first reported that Meta has been preparing for a "leaner second half of the year" as the company "tries to cope up with macroeconomic pressures and data privacy hits to its ads business." This is according to an internal memo released to the employees.
The memo comes from chief product officer, Chris Cox. Meta's priorities and the challenges that it is facing going forward were outlined in the memo.
Meta is Experiencing the Worst Downturns This Year
According to Engadget, Zuckerberg reportedly stated that Meta is experiencing "one of the worst downturns [it has seen] in recent history." This was said in a weekly employee Q&A session.
Meta's CEO also revealed that the company has slashed about 30 percent of its target number for new engineers hires this year.
In a memo issued by Cox, he noted that the biggest revenue challenge comes from privacy changes affecting Meta's ad business together with macroeconomic pressures.
"I have to underscore that we are in serious times here and the headwinds are fierce. We need to execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets." Cox wrote in the memo published by The Verge.
The employees were already notified that a slowdown was coming. According to The Verge, hiring across a number of teams was already frozen in May. Teams that are affected include those who are working on shopping and video chatting products.
As investors worry about slowing growth and expensive investments in the metaverse that may take years to pay off, Meta's stock has dipped over the past five months.
Meta did not give a comment regarding this story.
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Meta Will Continue to Push Reel
In the memo issued by Cox, he laid out six areas where he believes Facebook needs to deepen its investments.
The six areas stipulated in the memo include metaverse products, AI, messaging, continuing to push Reels, monetization, and meeting new privacy requirements.
According to Cox, without requiring the help of new staff or budgets, teams will have to "prioritize more ruthlessly", as per The Verge report.
In addition, one of the key priorities is monetizing Reels "as quickly as possible." Reels are short-form video format, which are created as an answer to TikTok.
Since last year, time spent on Reels has more than doubled around the world. Around 80 percent of that growth are coming from Facebook.
According to Cox, reels can be considered as a "bright point" for Meta in the first half of 2022.
Engadget said that "Meta plans to continue improving the experience, including making changes to the home screen on Instagram and Facebook to incorporate the videos more natively."
Moreover, in the second half of the year, Meta is planning to focus on its AI initiatives, as well as on WhatsApp and Messenger. Before WhatsApp Communities launches around the world by the end of 2022, the company plans to test the feature.
Another thing that Meta will develop is the Instagram Creator channels and joinable chats. These features are slated for rollout in the coming months.
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