Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results • Hacker News Board

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#171

Post by kurupt213 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:03 AM UTC

pjfin123 wrote: post #165

potatolicious wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect a few reasons, some of which are shared by all of the tech companies that over-hired: - Prestige. There are a lot of companies (especially VC funded startups) that have massively over-hired because a large headcount of high-end engineers is a signal to the market (and importantly, VCs) as to your seriousness. - Talent denial to competitors. If you don't want anyone to catch up in a space (say, VR) you can g…

I've heard the talent denial to competitors reason but even for companies as big as FB and Google this seems unrealistic to me. Is hiring an expensive engineer really worth it to prevent one of many other potentially competing companies from hiring them? This makes sense for very specialized roles but for general engineering it seems like there would be more cost than benefit.

One, absolutely yes, but maybe not 2,000

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#172

Post by netheril96 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:08 AM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #117

cm2012 wrote: post #98

I am very bullish on FB: 1) Founder still has majority voting shares, gives a lot more freedom. 2) I think the Metaverse stuff will pay off in the long run 3) They are making the changes necessary to compete with TikTok. I am buying shares now at this price

Honestly, the whole question with FB stock is whether you believe the Metaverse stuff will pay off. I give them worse than even odds, but better than a 10% chance, to be the ones who get it right.

I highly doubt the prospect of Metaverse. I just don’t think the current technology can ever make it like what people imagine.

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#173

Post by woadwarrior01 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:16 AM UTC

kart23 wrote: post #147

woadwarrior01 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PE and SWE are't even remotely close in the pecking order at Meta. Also, the interview loops were slightly different for PE based on whether the candidate came from a SWE background or a systems background. I'm a former Meta PE who reinterviewed internally as a SWE and then left because I was told that I'd have to move countries to finalize the conversion (because my location was a non-SWE site).

what do you mean by pecking order? like are PEs less important than SWEs?

Yes. I was told this the almost as soon as I started as a PE, by colleagues. 2+ years later, having worked in both PE and SWE teams, I noticed first hand that PEs were consistently looked down upon by both SWEs and SWE managers.

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#174

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:16 AM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #98

I am very bullish on FB: 1) Founder still has majority voting shares, gives a lot more freedom. 2) I think the Metaverse stuff will pay off in the long run 3) They are making the changes necessary to compete with TikTok. I am buying shares now at this price

[deleted]

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#175

Post by colinmhayes » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:18 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #57

Disclaimer: Ex-Facebooker. The first thing to know about Facebook is that they view the social media landscape in two dimensions: format and audience size. Format here means text -> audio -> video. So if you look at the match up between audience of 1:1,000,000 and text you'll find Twitter, for example. This has served FB quite well but what happens after video, if anything? Well, the company believes the next two ste…

I think the misinformation thing is a much bigger problem than you’re making it out to be. Facebook was already in traditional medias sights because they along with google have hoovered up all their revenue. Giving the media and the government an excuse to harp on them is a big problem.

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#176

Post by netheril96 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:22 AM UTC

fairity wrote: post #167

cletus wrote: post #57

Disclaimer: Ex-Facebooker. The first thing to know about Facebook is that they view the social media landscape in two dimensions: format and audience size. Format here means text -> audio -> video. So if you look at the match up between audience of 1:1,000,000 and text you'll find Twitter, for example. This has served FB quite well but what happens after video, if anything? Well, the company believes the next two ste…

> The Metaverse. Much like VR in general, I don't think is ever going to be mainstream. It doesn't solve any problem. VR will eventually reach the point where meeting someone in person will feel virtually the same as meeting someone in VR. The problem VR solves is that there's a vast amount of resources currently being spent on transit (i.e. work & social commuting), housing (e.g. offices & hangout spaces), and ancil…

For that I think we need VR by holograms instead of headsets.

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#177

Post by spoils19 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:23 AM UTC

Yhippa wrote: post #99

sys_64738 wrote: post #79

Look how many people FB has to support their webpage. Insane.

It must be mostly backend stuff. It feels like the website itself barely evolved over the past several years.

It hasn't. Despite having a new fancy framework and some new rewrites, the website is almost exactly the same as 6-7 years ago. I can't name one single meaningful feature added.

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#178

Post by colinmhayes » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:23 AM UTC

samspenc wrote: post #83

UncleMeat wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This one will be interesting. On the one hand, still hugely profitable. An operating margin of 29% is insane. On the other hand, people expect growth and no revenue growth and a large drop in income is definitely not what investors want to see.

The interesting thing is they were operating at more than 40% profit margins for years now. A drop to 29% margins [1] is actually pretty significant and puts it in line with profit margins at most other larger tech firms, and not at the top of the market anymore. [1] Looks like this is pre-tax? I'm calculating 25% post-tax margins.

They lost 3 billion on their metaverse play. Remove that from the equation and their margins are still bonkers

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#179

Post by colinmhayes » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:25 AM UTC

spoils19 wrote: post #177

Yhippa wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must be mostly backend stuff. It feels like the website itself barely evolved over the past several years.

It hasn't. Despite having a new fancy framework and some new rewrites, the website is almost exactly the same as 6-7 years ago. I can't name one single meaningful feature added.

Marketplace was a huge add. Was that 6 or 7 years ago now?

Re: Meta Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

#180

Post by throwaway072722 » Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 2:28 AM UTC

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #116

DeRock wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a 5 year period: -MSFT: up 267% -GOOG: up 143% -AMZN: up 131% -AAPL: up 316% and META? down 6%

5 year periods don't affect employee compensation packages. Most people in tech last at a company for 2 years. Most cliffs are at the 4 year mark. META has dumped harder than most of the other Big Tech companies over the last year, but it's also the newest and has more growth priced in than the others who have been around for longer. If we look at YTD: - MSFT: -19.68% - GOOG: -21.67% - AMZN: -29.02% - AAPL: -13.93% -…

Tech is kinda weird right now too.

Job hopping slowed during the pandemic, and recession concerns, differences in WFH policies between companies, etc may extend avg tenure >2y.

Also, good options are drying up.

People left Apple, MS, Amazon Google to go to Meta + Netflix + unicorns (and subsequently moved between this second category).

Netflix and Coinbase seem terrible options right now. Shopify too.

Lyft, Uber? Can the runway hold?

Snap, Twitter? Even worst than Meta.

Airbnb? Instacart? Maybe, dunno.

Stripe is probably the last great choice.

Big tech is kinda the only game right now, and leaving Meta for another big co is unlikely to lead to higher comp even with stock variance. Esp. if Google tries to downlevel you as they often do.

I'd be surprised if there's any significant exodus of top Meta talent.