Zuckerberg Tells Staff To Focus on Video Products as Meta's Stock Plunges (bloomberg.com) 43
An anonymous reader shares a report: Mark Zuckerberg quipped that if he started to cry, it wasn't because of the day's news. His red, teary eyes were the result of a scratched cornea, the Facebook founder said Thursday, attempting to lighten the mood as Meta Platforms' stock price lost more than a quarter of its value. At a company-wide virtual meeting, Zuckerberg explained that the historic stock drop was a result of Meta's weak forecast for revenue in the current quarter, according to a person who attended and was not authorized to speak about it. It is important to focus on growing Facebook's short-video product, he said. Zuckerberg echoed his remarks of a day earlier to investors, telling employees that the social networking giant faced an "unprecedented level of competition," with the rise of TikTok, the rival viral-video platform. Meta's Instagram app has a copycat of TikTok called Reels, which the company is now prioritizing.
Employees were glued to the stock price. Facebook lost a record $251 billion of value in a single day. Some were discussing buying shares during the dip, believing in Zuckerberg's long-term vision for the metaverse, an immersive version of the internet. Others fretted about what a continued decline might mean for their net worth, according to people familiar with the matter. Zuckerberg's own wealth dropped by $31 billion. Meta is already talking about ways to retain staff amid the stock rout. The social media giant is thinking of extending existing three-day holiday weekends, Zuckerberg said, responding to a question on burnout. He also encouraged exhausted employees to use their vacation days. He added that based on his life experience, transitioning to a four-day work week all the time would not be productive.
Employees were glued to the stock price. Facebook lost a record $251 billion of value in a single day. Some were discussing buying shares during the dip, believing in Zuckerberg's long-term vision for the metaverse, an immersive version of the internet. Others fretted about what a continued decline might mean for their net worth, according to people familiar with the matter. Zuckerberg's own wealth dropped by $31 billion. Meta is already talking about ways to retain staff amid the stock rout. The social media giant is thinking of extending existing three-day holiday weekends, Zuckerberg said, responding to a question on burnout. He also encouraged exhausted employees to use their vacation days. He added that based on his life experience, transitioning to a four-day work week all the time would not be productive.
Didn't we just (Score:4, Informative)
Have this article already?
Ah screw it, if the editors here can't be bothered to know which stories they have already posted...
Same Old, Same Old (Score:2)
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
Only the editor passing it through changes.
Re:Didn't we just (Score:5, Insightful)
We really need -1 (Dupe) as a moderator option for whole articles.
Re: Didn't we just (Score:2)
-1 (Dupe)
Oh, the irony.
Re: (Score:2)
I'll keep duping the comment until the duping stops. Or morale improves. Whichever comes first.
Re: Didn't we just (Score:3)
They took away tagging presumably because we marked dupes as dupes...
Re:Didn't we just (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I think the editors get a food pellet each time they post an article.
Now you're just being insulting. If the editors were guinea pigs, their spelling would be better.
Re:Didn't we just (Score:5, Funny)
Have this article already?
Ah screw it, if the editors here can't be bothered to know which stories they have already posted...
If the stock price drops another 24% today then I’m not going to complain this one time.
Re:Didn't we just (Score:4, Funny)
That article was posted in Meta. This one is posted IRL.
Duplicate, Dumbasses... (Score:2)
You know, they really should only hire editors that actually read and follow slashdot, then they would know that a story was just posted a day earlier...
Re: Duplicate, Dumbasses... (Score:3)
How much money do you think /. generates for them?
This has also surely got to be one of the biggest concentrations of readers with ad blockers, JavaScript disabled, DNS host files misdirections, etc.
Re: Duplicate, Dumbasses... (Score:2)
None of that is relevant because those features don't block slashvertisements. They just put the ads on the front page as stories.
Re: Duplicate, Dumbasses... (Score:2)
How much money does /. generate?
The numbers of users have dwindled over the years.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, that's the real question isn't it? Is there actually any real value to this thing for BizX any more? Why are they bothering with it at all? I don't see why they aren't selling it off to anyone with a dollar and a half to spare. But then I don't know what slashvertisements are worth, either. This site must be cheap to operate, so it wouldn't be hard for it to pay for itself.
Re: Duplicate, Dumbasses... (Score:2)
Yes, I agree. But it's hard to complain about poor editors if there isn't enough revenue to pay for better ones. But this is speculation. OTOH, why would the business hire better but more expensive editors if they can get away with the current crop?
But if you invested in dupe stonks (Score:1)
They're going to the moon!
from the another-go-at-it dept. (Score:2)
Again? (Score:2)
He's repeating himself? [slashdot.org] He must really want to drive that point home!
What does failure look like? (Score:5, Interesting)
When you are Facebook, what does failure look like?
The freshness of Facebook has worn off. Facebook as a product is no longer new and innovative. Zuck does not have the next great innovative idea, he had exactly one of those. For a while now Facebook has been keeping up through acquisitions and making copies of other existing things. They have enough money to sustain their search for the next big thing for a while, but not forever. Facebook is on a long slow liquidation.
Re: (Score:3)
This is a huge problem of our economic system. That crap companies that aren't viable any longer still can hold on like zombies on old cash from the one good idea they once had.
Re:What does failure look like? (Score:5, Insightful)
"New and innovative"? People just get online for the first time, and think that piece of crap is "good"?
Speaking as a programmer and sysadmin, I've yet to understand how it got to be so big, when it's a total disaster as a website. Any business website is better. There is *no* UI bible, trying to post anything or respond is inconsistent, its "community standards" are handwaving that have no actual existence in reality - for that matter, what community at they talking about, and who was on the committee that wrote the alleged standards, and who approved them?
No, it's crap.
Re: (Score:2)
Can't argue, it is crap and always has been crap. But it is also a 'free' way to connect with people and share your life. FB has only ever had to be good enough, never had to be great. I have never used Facebook because I enjoy privacy.
Re: (Score:2)
I've yet to understand how it got to be so big, when it's a total disaster as a website
I was never a significant user of MySpace or other social media applications before Facebook because the ones I was aware of didn't provide me any value. They were mostly just a way to create a site about myself and my interests. What Facebook got right was to focus on encouraging users to post things their friends and family would care about. So there was a reason to use the site. I first signed up just to get invites to a friend's volleyball game because they moved the invite to Facebook (instead of calli
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, Tik Tok is gaining, but at least if you trust Statista, is still be
Re: (Score:2)
Totally. Nearly every ad I see on Facebook is for bikinis. I've never bought one, and I never will, but they're nice to look at.
Re: (Score:2)
Zuckerberg may have dementia! (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the second time he's told them the exact same thing! [slashdot.org] I may not care for Zuckerberg but his workers are going to be the ones to suffer so they should... on second thought, let them suffer. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
He's just drunk. Drunk people are known to repeat things.
Drunk people are known to repeat things.
Four day work week (Score:2)
He added that based on his life experience, transitioning to a four-day work week all the time would not be productive
.. to his bottom line
Never been (Score:1)
It's their fault (Score:2)
The users can see the garbage that is permitted and even encouraged on the site, FB/Meta obviously can too. Do nothing and people stop using your service. I wish they had a way to verify that users are actual people and give me an option to turn on "verified users only". On Slashdot I ignore "Anonymous" and you get a much better experience. I don't agree with everyone, but at least it's a real person being a dumbass and I can live with that.
Coincidentally, or not (Score:1)
My friend told me just yesterday that his company keeps hemorrhaging employees to Meta...
Re: (Score:2)
FB treats workers well (Score:2)
My friend told me just yesterday that his company keeps hemorrhaging employees to Meta...
Yup. Good pay, free meals, probably dozens of amenities I am not aware of. Meta competes with Google, which basically runs a nerd day care...if you haven't toured, you should. It's nicer than most resorts. Most of the top players in big tech give quite enviable perks and fringe benefits.
I would have no problem working for a failing product if you paid me well and pampered me at work.
Product? What product? (Score:4)
Quick! Into the lifeboats! (Score:2)
Hey Zuck! (Score:2)
how about advanced technology of saving your preferred view settings! I just want to see new posts on top.
Zuckerberg's "life experience"?! (Score:5, Insightful)
He went from college to FB.
What life experience does he have?
Next /. headline (Score:2)
"Do duplicate stories increase traffic and revenue on Slashdot as people complain about them?"
Now you know (Score:2)
the FB dumpster fire is going to burn for a long time. Have you seen facebook video? Probably 90% of the videos are ripped from someone else's channel or youtube. Maybe they should focus on actually doing what they started doing and that's connecting people, not turning them into politicized zombies.