The dark side of Zuckerberg’s empire

follow up BloombergMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would rather be floating in Hawaii than worrying about less than stellar financial reports.

In recent months, Zuckerberg has repeatedly mentioned the company’s long-term plans to target the Metaverse virtual universe. However, on July 27, he mentioned a more immediate and practical goal: to use algorithms to develop social networks and provide users with a stream of content from creators. This is how TikTok made it and was successful.

“Ultimately, we’re still a social media company focused on connecting people,” Zuckerberg told investors.

The announcement came as the company’s sales fell for the first time in a decade. meta hit $28.82 billion in Q2 2022At the same time, it is 1 percent less than last year. Meanwhile, its monthly active users grew 1% to 2.93 billion.

Zuckerberg spends a lot of time talking about the competitive threat. CEO Meta pointed to potential financial challenges, including the collapse of Apple’s privacy policy, increasing competition from TikTok, and the impact of a “disruptive economy” on the economy.

To compete with Tik Tok, Meta decided to copy the platform’s features and instead of creating another, more innovative product, it decided to put it on Facebook and Instagram via the Reels app. The change was opposed by both content creators and consumers, including celebrities like the Kim Kardashian family.

Even younger users are challenged by Meta. At the end of last year, the company recorded its first daily user discount. The reasons are that young people don’t want to access “old” social networks like Facebook and Apple restricts tracking of Facebook ads on iOS.

WhatsApp is a big problem for Meta.

However, acc The Washington Post, Meta’s biggest threat right now is Meta’s biggest investment, WhatsApp. In 2014, Zuckerberg bought this messaging app for $19 billion. For almost 8 years, Meta couldn’t do anything to make the app a “golden egg” like Instagram. In 2012, they bought the platform for $1 billion. In 2019 alone, Instagram sales reached 20 billion. dollars, while WhatsApp has reached a much smaller fraction.

Late last year, the FTC and several US states sued Meta for building a social media monopoly by shutting down two competitors by buying Instagram and WhatsApp. In the lawsuit, the FTC asked the court to order Meta to sell those two subsidiaries, meaning separate and destroy the “empire” Zuckerberg built.

It also makes Zuckerberg less motivated to make WhatsApp an on-demand app, experts say, especially in the transition to the Metaverse. However, according to the wishes of the virtual universe “Meta” in the second year 2022. It lost another 2.8 billion in the quarter.

A tense atmosphere

Over the past few weeks, meta managers have made several recommendations regarding employee performance. On July 27, Meta admitted it is cutting costs and capping new hires this year. But there’s another intended message: It’s time to change the company.

“If someone is still not meeting expectations, asking Meta to leave is the right thing to do,” Meta’s chief operating officer, Lori Goller, said in a memo to employees earlier this month regarding the announcement. The Washington Post collect

According to observers, the above announcement is a drastic move by Meta after years of lax governance. “The atmosphere is very tense,” said a Meta staffer. Everyone is worried because the budget is slowly being cut.

According to some insiders, a wave of fear is spreading through the company. Most fear losing their jobs or having their benefits cut. Others think of limited advancement opportunities, low pay, or staffing issues.

Many employees have expressed their dissatisfaction in workplace and group discussions. There has been an increase in unhappy threads about the company in recent weeks, mostly related to the company’s finances and future direction.

Meta was a symbol of Silicon Valley’s prosperity. In the past few years, the company has offered its employees some great benefits such as free meals, benefits, and a high salary.

“Unfortunately, after many years in the meta, everything is going to hell. I’ll wait for the September gift and go,” one person wrote. Another asked, “Does he still feel safe here?” he asked.

Dan Ives, financial services analyst at Wedbush Securities said, “Morale at all technology companies, not just Facebook, has plummeted dramatically over the past decade.” “Amid business challenges, the darkest chapter now awaits. Tech companies need to reassess and realign.”

Bao Lam