"Meta Randomly Cut Jobs"... Layoffs Spread to the UK

Over 680 Employees Laid Off in London

Meta, which has cut more than 20,000 employees in the United States, is also implementing restructuring in the United Kingdom. As a recession is expected to worsen business conditions, the strategy is to reduce fixed costs and secure as much cash as possible to overcome the crisis.

According to major foreign media on the 20th (local time), Meta, the world's largest social media company, will cut more than 10% of its workforce in the UK and close its office located in King's Cross, central London. Meta stated in an email sent to employees the day before that at least 687 jobs will be eliminated in London, and the scale of layoffs could expand to the entire UK workforce. Currently, about 5,000 Meta employees work in the UK.

Most of the 687 cuts appear to be Instagram-related staff based in London. The departments targeted for layoffs include advertising, data, and design. Foreign media, citing sources, reported, "Some of the employees in the departments being reorganized may be reassigned to other departments or return to the US headquarters," adding, "Negotiations to decide which employees will remain have already begun."

Another source said that the company is facing backlash from employees amid suspicions that teams targeted for layoffs are being chosen randomly. The source said, "There was no logical explanation from the company as to why certain teams were targeted for layoffs," and "Employees with poor performance are keeping their positions, while high-performing employees are being laid off simply because they belong to certain teams."

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

The UK market has been a long-term focus for Meta. As Chinese TikTok rapidly expanded its presence in the UK market, Adam Mosseri, Instagram CEO based in the US, has been commuting to Meta’s office in King's Cross, London since last year to regain the user base lost to TikTok. Foreign media have noted that this restructuring is taking place less than a year after establishing the London office to expand Instagram’s business.

Meta announced a second round of additional layoffs last month, just four months after conducting its first large-scale layoff of 11,000 employees (13% of the total workforce) in November last year. Through these actions, a total of 21,000 employees have been laid off.

Meta’s layoffs stem from deteriorating performance and financial structure. While advertising revenue, the core source of income, has sharply slowed, the company has continued massive investments in new businesses such as the 3D virtual world metaverse to diversify its social media-focused business, resulting in a steep decline in profits.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, said during the earnings conference call in February, "This year is the 'year of efficiency,' and we are focusing on becoming a stronger and more agile organization," hinting at further layoffs. Meta also shared plans in documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reduce spending by approximately $86 billion to $96 billion this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.