Friday, March 29, 2024

Meta’s plans to lay off thousands of employees

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Good day,

Victoria here

I’ve got some news before the main gist. 😉

Firstly, The New York Times reported that Twitter is delaying the launch of its new Blue subscription with verification to November 9, 2022, after this week’s midterm elections.

Also, according to multiple reports, Twitter invited some employees back after its mass layoff last week. Bloomberg reported that the company asked some employees to return after they were laid off “by mistake.”

Twitter also said that it was calling back some other employees because they were critical to the development of features for the platform Musk envisions.

A new rule: Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, announced that any Twitter handle engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.

He also said that although Twitter previously notified users before suspension, now that it is introducing widespread verification, there will be no warning.

Lastly, Telegram’s app has been updated with new features and visual enhancements, including video voice-to-text transcription, separate topics in large group chats, and “Collectible Usernames.”

Here’s what I’ve got for you today: 

  • Clement Hugbo’s journey from oil and gas to tech
  • Yassir’s $150m Series B
  • Meta’s plans to lay off thousands of employees on Wednesday

Clement Hugbo’s journey from oil and gas to tech

On this week’s edition of Emerging Tech Africa, Bolu spoke with Clement Hugbo, a Web3 designer who has worked at companies like Index Coop, Nestcoin, Polygon, and Bundle. 

But he didn’t start his tech career as a designer; he has worn many hats, all of which have made him the designer he is today. 

How did he begin? Hugbo entered tech in 2015 as a media archivist, a role far from design. It involved manually inputting media files and data into an in-house server when cloud storage wasn’t so prominent.

From being a media archiver, Hugbo became an enterprise resource planning (ERP) consultant and developer at IRSL Logistics, using Systems Applications and Products (SAP) to manage daily business activities for organisations like Dangote Group and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). 

After that, he found his way into front-end development, becoming the front-end lead for a blockchain project. He worked closely with designers and even had to do some designs himself. 

Spurred by his love for crypto and blockchain, he finally ventured into design in 2018. Then he started taking on Web3-related design jobs without formal training. 

But how did he learn to be a designer? What experience did he draw from his previous tech roles? Please find out here: Earning $15k monthly as a Web3 designer: Clement Hugbo’s journey from oil and gas to tech

Yassir’s $150m Series B

Beryl TV yassir-957x682 Meta’s plans to lay off thousands of employees Technology

Yassir, an Algerian super app platform, has raised $150 million in Series B funding.

BOND led the round. Other investors include DN Capital, Dorsal Capital, Quiet Capital, Stanford Alumni Ventures, and Y Combinator via its Continuity Fund. 

With offices in France, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Canada, and Algeria, the startup is preparing to triple the size of its engineering and product teams across Africa and the Middle East.

First launched in Algeria in 2017 by  Noureddine Tayebi (CEO), Yassir offers on-demand services such as ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, and payments in 45 cities across six countries. 

Yassir says it offers its customers a one-stop shop for managing their daily activities, from getting to work to ordering groceries and meals. 

It claims its financial services support a multifaceted marketplace ecosystem, which has 8 million users and 100,000 partners, including drivers, couriers, merchants, suppliers, and wholesalers. 

Yassir is leveraging this network for its payments play, which includes a B2B eCommerce retail component connecting fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) suppliers with merchants and deploying drivers and couriers as money agents.

Want more information? Please read: Yassir raises $150 million in Series B funding as it eyes further expansion

Meta’s plans to lay off thousands of employees on Wednesday

Beryl TV Meta Meta’s plans to lay off thousands of employees Technology

According to The World Street Journal, beginning Wednesday, November 9, 2022, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, plans to lay off thousands of employees.

While it is unclear how many people will be laid off and which departments will be affected, these “large-scale” layoffs are expected to affect a significant portion of the workforce. 

At the end of September 2022, Meta had over 87,300 employees.

Series of events in 2022: In June, Meta’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, issued a “serious times” warning, noting that employees must “execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth.” 

Around the same time, Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg began to pressure employees, saying in an internal Q&A session obtained by The Verge‘s Alex Heath that “there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.” 

In September, Zuckerberg implemented a hiring freeze and warned that the company might be forced to downsize soon. 

Also, the company quietly started to reduce a significant number of employees by reorganising departments and giving affected employees a limited window to apply for other roles within the company. 

Then during October’s earnings call, Zuckerberg said that many “teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year” as Meta faces economic challenges. 

Also, the company has instructed employees to cancel non-essential travel beginning this week.

It comes as Meta deals with slowing global economic growth, TikTok competition, Apple privacy changes, concerns about massive spending on the metaverse, and the ever-present threat of regulation.

And as advertisers retreat, digital advertising, which accounts for most of Meta’s revenue, has weakened, affecting many social media companies. 


What I’m reading and watching

In case you missed it

Opportunities

  • Okra is hiring for several roles in Engineering, Cloud Infrastructure and HQ. Apply here.
  • Binance is looking for a seasoned Big Data data warehouse engineer. Apply here.
  • Techpoint Pitch Friday is on Friday, November 11, 2022. You can register to attend here. It’s completely free and promises to be fantastic.
  • If you are a leader fueled by the ambition of food and hunger, apply for the African Food Fellowship Food Systems Leadership Programme 2023 here.
  • Applications are open for the Tourism Hackathon Nigeria 2022. Apply here.
  • Pariti is hiring a Senior Data Scientist here.
  • HugeInc has openings for several roles in different teams, including creative, data and insights, finance, operations, talent, and technology. Apply here.
  • Netflix is looking for skilled people to take up some job openings remotely. Apply here.
  • Do you want to obtain a professional certificate that is recognised in your industry? The Meta Elevate Coursera Scholarship application period is now open. Apply here.

Have a beautiful Tuesday!

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