Meta — once a behemoth in the social media space — has reported its first revenue decline ever: A 1% decline in revenue in Q2 year-over-year. This decline comes along with the company’s long haul strategy of pivoting away from their time as social media titan Facebook and into the “metaverse.”
In their quarterly earnings report for Q2 2022, Meta hit investors with the reveal of a downturn in company revenue when compared to Q2 2021 — a concerning 1%. While this may not seem like a huge loss, the New York Times reports that this is the first time the company has reported a loss in revenue since it went public in 2012. Unfortunately for Meta, the hits just don’t stop coming as the company also revealed a 36% loss in net income for Q2 year-over-year. That’s a big yikes.
As part of Meta’s earnings release, the company also announced two high-level staff changes. Their current Chief Financial Officer David Wehner will soon shift gears, transitioning to Meta’s first Chief Strategy officer. Susan Li, the company’s current Vice President of Finance has been tapped to take over the role of Chief Financial Officer for Wehner. CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook to congratulate the two on their new roles, saying in part, “I’m excited to keep working closely with both of you as we grow our business and shape our strategy to build for the future.” After what’s clearly a disappointing earnings report for Meta, we’re not surprised to see a shake up in the finance department.
It’s no secret at this point that even Meta, one of the biggest tech companies, is feeling the burn that so many in the tech sphere are currently struggling with. The company is currently slashing its engineer hiring efforts 30% from 10,000 to somewhere in the ballpark of 6,000 and 7,000, while managers have recently been advised to axe underperforming employees with the justification that “they are not who we need.”