Facebook group Meta is laying off 11,000 employees

The Facebook group Meta is laying off more than 11,000 employees in the largest job cuts in its history. That's about 13 percent of the workforce, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday.

The reason for the US group's recent poor earnings situation is falling advertising revenues, but also the high development costs for the planned new "Metaverse", a digital space in which users can stay in the future.

The job cuts came with an announcement, but the extent might surprise some observers. The company will also extend its hiring freeze through the first quarter, Bloomberg said in a statement.

The news service quoted founder Mark Zuckerberg as saying: "I want to take responsibility for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is difficult for everyone and I am especially sorry for those affected."

Zuckerberg also pointed out that he overestimated the online boom at the beginning of the corona pandemic and therefore increased investments. But now the online business has returned to earlier trends – and the weakening economy and increased competition are also having a negative impact on revenues. He takes responsibility for the decisions and their consequences.

In the last quarter alone, the Reality Labs division, which is working on the “Metaverse”, posted an operating loss of almost $3.7 billion (currently €3.67 billion). Since the beginning of the year, a deficit of 9.4 billion dollars has accumulated - with sales of 1.4 billion dollars in the area. And Zuckerberg already announced that Reality Labs' losses would "grow significantly" in the coming year.