Facebook parent company Meta will cut jobs in Australia by the end of the week, as part of efforts by its billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg to reduce costs across the business.
Meta is consulting with local staff and the size of the cuts will be known once those discussions are concluded, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal processes. Meta Australia did not disclose the number of employees, but a LinkedIn search showed more than 180.
Meta Australia is run by Will Easton.Credit:Jenny Barrett
It was not immediately clear which positions would be affected, but globally, the hardest cuts were in recruiting and business units. The company also recently scaled back its news partnerships division, turning its attention to video content. A Meta spokesman declined to comment.
Zuckerberg last week announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs, or 13 percent of his workforce, right under Elon Musk. Twitter fires thousands of employees via email. layoffs, For the first time in Meta’s 18-year history, It is the result of a weakening economy, increased competition and declining advertising revenue.
“Not only did online commerce return to previous trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition and loss of ad signal caused our revenue to fall well short of my expectations,” Zuckerberg said in a blog post.
In a blog post, Zuckerberg said hiring would be “disproportionately impacted” and said “business teams” would be restructured. People familiar with the negotiations said cuts were made in Australia at a slower pace because of the need to consult with affected staff. If a business is considering redundancies of 15 or more staff, it needs to notify Services Australia in writing of the proposed dismissal.
One area where Zuckerberg has cut costs over the past few months has been in the global news partnerships division, which is focusing more on producing video content. Meta’s cuts come as the chairmen of Australia’s two largest media companies expressed confidence they will be able to renegotiate deals with tech giants Google and Meta to use their news content on their respective sites.
The masthead’s publisher Nine Entertainment and owner of News Corp Australia Australian, herald sun and daily telegraphIt is among companies that have received millions from Meta and search giant Google after the federal government introduced laws mandating payment for news content.
news media Bargain codes launched last year after Discover competition regulators Bargaining power imbalance between media companies and digital platforms. However, comments by the two platforms seeking to introduce similar legislative measures in other markets have raised questions about local commitments to renegotiate future deals.
