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Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

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Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#211

Post by HDThoreaun »

adamlgerber wrote: post #118
gnicholas wrote: post #94

I find that my FB feed is roughly 50% ads. Sometimes there are two, or even three ads in a row. I barely use it anymore (and I've literally never clicked on an ad). I wonder why FB thinks people will use their product when it is half advertisements. People watch 21 mins of TV with 9 mins of commercials, and they would revolt if it were 15/15.

Its not that I don't believe your general point but I would be interested in evidence that you're getting more than 1 in a row. I am $50MM+/year spender on Meta ads and while I know that ad load is up I don't think its up that much where ads run alongside each other. If you can show me evidence of this I will make a big fucking deal of this to Meta.

Ads shown were up 21% last quarter on minimal user growth to make up for cost per ad going down 17% according to earnings report. Facebook is absolutely shoving as much ads in as they can at this point.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#212

Post by HDThoreaun »

flashgordon wrote: post #58

So one thing I was curious about is those who were laying off (at least the big 4) have xyz billions in the bank. If there is truly fat then it can be trimmed by either flattening the org, cutting down pay, changing work hours etc (nobody works just 40 hrs anymore). So the layoffs seem clearly for paying homage to wall st. What would happen if one of these CEOs grew a pair and held off and directed the fat to muscle?…

Most big tech companies doubled staffing over the pandemic because they saw a 10% chance that people would continue to spend much more time online after the pandemic and they didn't want to miss the opportunities associated with that. They knew that if things went back to normal they could just lay all the extra people off and return to normal and the costs associated with that were worth the 10% chance to see massive growth. The idea that there was some sort of mistake seems pretty naive to me. Meta doesn't employ fortune tellers, they just react to the probabilities they see.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#213

Post by 2devnull »

cableshaft wrote: post #195
2devnull wrote: post #124

Meta is lame company that’s never had a good product or an original idea. They stole the idea of Friendster/MySpace and used anticompetitive tactics to monopolize. Instagram is sort of cool, but that was just an acquisition. They are the first company that comes to mind when I hear Peter Thiel talk about stagnation. Not that the other fangs are impressive, but Facebook is by far the most underwhelming of the lot. All…

> Meta is lame company that’s never had a good product or an original idea. The React framework is a pretty good product that originated from them.

Good point. React is extremely popular. I give them points for that. But when I compare react against say the many technologies that have come from google, I’m still pretty underwhelmed.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#214

Post by gregors »

extr wrote: post #139

I was spared in the Nov 2022 layoff but decided to find another gig anyway and started elsewhere in January. The difference for my mental health has been night and day. Constant talk about "increased intensity" (what does that mean? I already thought I was working pretty hard), layoffs rumors with no official clarification, PSC stack ranking. No thanks, it just wasn't for me.

When I see leadership positions talk about "refocusing" or "intensity" it comes across as extremely disingenuous. If you weren't focused or working before, well what were you doing?

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#215

Post by gnicholas »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #211
adamlgerber wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not that I don't believe your general point but I would be interested in evidence that you're getting more than 1 in a row. I am $50MM+/year spender on Meta ads and while I know that ad load is up I don't think its up that much where ads run alongside each other. If you can show me evidence of this I will make a big fucking deal of this to Meta.

Ads shown were up 21% last quarter on minimal user growth to make up for cost per ad going down 17% according to earnings report. Facebook is absolutely shoving as much ads in as they can at this point.

Interesting that cost per ad went down. I wonder what happened to the click-through-rate as users had so many more ads shoved in their faces.

It's possible that ads are now cheaper, but also less effective. I only ever did pay per click because impressions mean nothing to a startup that no one has ever heard of. But it was always hard to break out of the default settings that were pay per impression.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#216

Post by htag »

lumost wrote: post #181
rvba wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not so easy to get a (first) job in FAANG. They sieve out a lot of bad programmers during their recruitment process. Probably some recruiters beleive that if you managed to get to a FAANG and stay for 2-3 years, then you are competent enough for many other jobs. So in theory working there opens doors. It used to be similar in finance, where getting that internship at Mckinsey/Bain/BCG or in BIG4 (deloitte, ey,…

aye - it definitely signals rigor. However it is worth questioning whether Google at 30k employees has the same signaling effect as Google at 186k employees. Either the number of highly qualified engineers has increased by 4x - or the bar has lowered over time. I'd imagine that 4 years from now having OpenAI on your resume will be a much better signal than Google, if only for the reason that there are only 400 people…

> whether Google at 30k employees has the same signaling effect as Google at 186k employees

This is why prestigious universities don't invest in increasing class sizes. The student demand is there. There is no lack of world class professors to hire, and larger facilities could be built. An Ivy league is capable of reaching 10x enrollment in 20 years while raising tuition and providing the same quality of education. However, within 50 years the brand will carry less prestige.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#217

Post by sorokod »

nivenkos wrote: post #144
zmmmmm wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the tipping point is closer than you may realise. There has been material progress in form factors in the last year or so and we are not nearly done with the improvements that are on the radar. Once we hit a certain point with the form factor, quite a wide range of use cases will become a no-brainer (for example, sitting on the bus with it).

> for example, sitting on the bus with it You'd use an $800 device (with limited awareness of your surroundings) on the bus?

In a self driving Tesla with it?

A perfect match and around the corner too.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#218

Post by Ancalagon »

adamlgerber wrote: post #118
gnicholas wrote: post #94

I find that my FB feed is roughly 50% ads. Sometimes there are two, or even three ads in a row. I barely use it anymore (and I've literally never clicked on an ad). I wonder why FB thinks people will use their product when it is half advertisements. People watch 21 mins of TV with 9 mins of commercials, and they would revolt if it were 15/15.

Its not that I don't believe your general point but I would be interested in evidence that you're getting more than 1 in a row. I am $50MM+/year spender on Meta ads and while I know that ad load is up I don't think its up that much where ads run alongside each other. If you can show me evidence of this I will make a big fucking deal of this to Meta.

Commenting because I want to see this drama unfold in the future.

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#219

Post by cableshaft »

peab wrote: post #198
cableshaft wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Oculus Quest 2 released at the same time as Xbox Series S/X and PS5. It's sold 15 million units, while the Xbox has sold 20 million and the PS5 has sold 30 million. While it's less than those two, it's still a very respectable number and incredibly high considering it doesn't have any of the major studios releasing their AAA games on it.

How accurate are these numbers? That's actually more than I expected - respectable and incredibly high, I agree

It seems to be based mostly on an analyst company's announcement back in June of 2022, and doesn't look like Meta has released actual numbers.

But there's corroborating data that suggests those numbers could be fairly accurate, such as Qualcomm saying way back in November 2021 that they shipped 10 million units of the chips that power the Quest 2[2]. And also seems to be the only number that's being reported anywhere.

[1]: https://80.lv/articles/meta-s-quest-2-has-reportedly-sold-ne...

[2]: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/16/22785469/meta-oculus-que...

Re: Another Round of Layoffs at Meta

#220

Post by moomoo11 »

UncleMeat wrote: post #210
moomoo11 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

never worked somewhere that directors are considered middle management. I’ve been at places where there was Associate Manager, Manager, Sr Manager, Group Manager, Director, Senior Director, VP, SVP. That is insane imo. Anyone below director is useless, and the director should just report to the VP or CTO. My point is that managers should be rare. And teams should be small. I’m not taking career or technical advice fr…

> That is insane imo. Anyone below director is useless, and the director should just report to the VP or CTO. Cool. Advocating for fewer layers of managers is very different than what you proposed in your original post, which included the phrase "Get rid of eng managers." > I’m not taking career or technical advice from an associate/manager because they’re usually the worst ICs and overall lowest performers in like 8…

I don’t consider eng manager on the same level as an executive. They’re middle management.

And back when the first 1-5 billion dollar valuation was created we moved fast and operated in small teams. Since going public and hiring like 5x as many people our valuation has only gone up like 1-2x. I strongly believe that the end game folks are not very good at their jobs and love wasting time coming up with process and spending money on events.

Again I know why this happens. I’m just saying I wish it wasn’t this way. Appearances and perception.. so dumb.

Oh well time to find my next exit hopefully because I love that thrill of building and solving customer problems.

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