Facebook parent Meta has warned its employees of a "serious" year as its ad business continues to suffer as the economy weakens. According to the internal memo obtained by The Verge, the social media giant priority for the rest of the year is metaverse and ad revenue from Reels and Shops Ads. The latest development comes less than a month after another leaked memo revealed the company plans to halt hiring due to revenue shortfalls.
Meta plans to launch Whatsapp Communities before it goes global at the end of the year are also mentioned in the memo. The feature, which was unveiled in April of this year, aims to improve group conversations.
Meta chief product officer Chris Cox internal investment memo warns of "serious times ahead" and "ferocious headwinds." "We need to execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect large influxes of new engineers and budgets," the letter says. We must set more ruthless priorities, be more thoughtful about measuring and understanding what drives impact, invest in developer efficiency and velocity within the company, and run leaner, meaner, more exciting teams."
The memo does not specifically mention other consumer-centric features that the company is banking on for the second half (H2) of 2022, but it does reiterate its previous plans to expand Facebook Reels to a wider audience. According to Meta, Business Messaging will be its most important revenue growth opportunity. The top priorities in this category are 'click-to-messaging ads,' 'paid messaging,' and software and tools.'
Aside from that, Meta will continue to prioritise AI in AR and increase AI capacity (Metaverse and Avatar autogen). It also mentions privacy. The memo emphasises the company "focus on increasing Privacy Review efficiency and working to make Privacy Review less disruptive for product teams."
Meanwhile, a company spokesperson told CNBC that the internal memo was only meant to highlight the company internal strategy. According to the memo, upcoming investment developments are not "absolute priorities."
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