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Facebook is removing several information fields from profiles, including religious and political views • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 17, 2022Posted in Apps, Facebook, meta, SocialNo Comments

Facebook is notifying users that it will remove four information fields from profiles starting next month. These fields include religious views, political views, addresses and the “Interested in” field, which indicates a user’s sexual orientation. The change will go into effect on December 1. A spokesperson for the company told ZebethMedia in an email that the reason behind the change is to make the social network easier to use. “As part of our efforts to make Facebook easier to navigate and use, we’re removing a handful of profile fields: Interested In, Religious Views, Political Views, and Address,” the the spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re sending notifications to people who have these fields filled out, letting them know these fields will be removed. This change doesn’t affect anyone’s ability to share this information about themselves elsewhere on Facebook.” The change was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who tweeted a screenshot of the notice being sent to users who have these fields filled out. The notice indicates that users’ other information will remain on their profiles, along with the rest of their contact and basic information. Facebook’s decision to get rid of these specific profile fields is part of its efforts to streamline its platform, which currently consists of several features that are somewhat outdated. It’s worth noting that the information fields that Facebook is choosing to remove are ones that other major social networks don’t offer. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have simple bios that let users share a little bit about themselves without going to specific details, such as political or religious views. In the past, people may have been interested in filling out their profiles with additional information, but as privacy infringements have come to light, users may no longer want to share extra details about themselves online. The news comes as Meta laid off 11,000 workers, which is about 13% of its workforce last week. The layoffs came amid a tough time for Meta, which provided lukewarm guidance last month October regarding its upcoming fourth-quarter earnings. The layoffs marked the most significant job cuts in the tech giant’s history.

Meta slashes expenses on reduced hiring and capex investments • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in CAPEX, expenses, Facebook, meta, metaverse, SocialNo Comments

Meta’s body blow layoff announcement will see the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp making its first-ever major layoffs as a company, cutting 11,000 employees, 13% of its total; predictably investors are responding favorably, bumping the stock up by over 5% in pre-market trading. While the dust settles and we start to get an idea of how specific departments, products and regions are being impacted, Meta’s also released some updated financials for 2023 that detail billions shaved off of its expenses estimates on the back of reduced hiring and less capex spending in areas like metaverse. In an 8-K filing today, the company confirmed it will reduce hiring next year, shaving off between $1 billion and $2 billion off its 2023 total expenses range as a result. Overall expenses for 2023 are now estimated at between $94 billion and $100 billion, versus its previous range of $96 billion to $101 billion. “The updated range reflects our plan to add fewer employees in 2023 than we previously expected as we are significantly slowing our hiring trajectory through the beginning of 2023,” Meta said, expanding on words from CEO Mark Zuckerberg in his open letter, which referred to a “hiring freeze” in Q1. (The expenses figure includes $2 billion in charges due to reduced office facilities, which Meta had previously disclosed.) Meta also noted in the 8-K that it is narrowing capital expenditures for 2023 by $2 billion at the top end. Capex estimates are now between $34 billion and $37 billion, versus $34 billion and $39 billion previously. Meta doesn’t detail here which areas will be hit by those cuts — capex can include any number of things such as data centers and network infrastructure, as well as Meta’s costly “metaverse” effort — but it does note that the latter of these is not looking very bright. “We continue to anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year,” Meta said. Again, it doesn’t specify numbers, but Reality Labs (the division that houses the metaverse operation) accounted for $285 million in revenues in Q3, just 1% of the company’s total for that period. The company’s ambitions to grow metaverse and other new lines of business have been a big pull on Facebook’s balance sheet. For context, in 2020, the company sunk $15.72 billion into capex, a figure that ticked up in 2021 to $19.24 billion. In 2022, capex looks to be even more outsized against a stark backdrop of sluggish revenue due to declining returns on its core advertising business: Meta estimated in Q3 that 2022 capex would be in the range of $32 billion and $33 billion. “In this new environment, we need to become more capital efficient,” Zuckerberg wrote in his note today. “We’ve shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high priority growth areas — like our AI discovery engine, our ads and business platforms, and our long-term vision for the metaverse. We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency.” Revenue ranges previously provided by Meta for Q4 revenue — between $30 billion and $32.5 billion — are unchanged, it said in the 8-K filing today, as are the ranges it provided for overall expenses in 2022, which are between between $85 billion and $87 billion.

Meta confirms 11,000 layoffs, amounting to 13% of its workforce • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, meta, SocialNo Comments

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp’s parent company Meta has confirmed a huge round of layoffs, amounting to 11,000 employees or 13% of its workforce. “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a statement. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.” The news comes as companies across the technological spectrum have announced huge swathes of redundancies in recent weeks, with Twitter laying off some half of its 7,500 workforce in the wake of Elon Musk’s arrival at the helm, while Stripe revealed plans to cut its headcount by 14%, or 1,120 employees. This is a breaking story, refresh for updates

Meta India head Ajit Mohan departs to join Snap • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in ajit mohan, Facebook, india, meta, Snap, SocialNo Comments

Ajit Mohan, the head of Meta in India, has left the firm and joined rival Snap, according to sources familiar with the matter. At Snap, Mohan will serve as the President of the APAC business, two sources said. Mohan joined Meta, called Facebook then, in January 2019 as a VP and MD of the India business. During his stay at the firm, Facebook’s family of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp added over 200 million users in India and made a series of ambitious investments in the country, including cutting a $5.7 billion check to Indian telecom giant Jio Platforms and ramped up the commerce engine of WhatsApp. A McKinsey alum, Mohan rose to the stardom at Star, where he played an instrumental role in getting the entertainment conglomerate to launch a streaming service, called Hotstar. Along with Uday Shankar, Mohan also played a key part in the content strategy of Hotstar, banking on local movies and shows and sports streaming. The timely bet on online streaming and cricket helped Hotstar become a crown jewel in Disney’s portfolio after the Fox acquisition. “Ajit has decided to step down from his role at Meta to pursue another opportunity outside of the company,” Nicola Mendelsohn, Vice President of Global Business Group at Meta, said in a statement. “Over the last four years, he has played an important role in shaping and scaling our India operations so they can serve many millions of Indian businesses, partners and people. We remain deeply committed to India and have a strong leadership team in place to carry on all our work and partnerships. We are grateful for Ajit’s leadership and contribution and wish him the very best for the future.” (More to follow)

Instagram will soon allow select creators to make and sell NFTs directly in its app • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 2, 2022Posted in Apps, Facebook, Instagram, meta, SocialNo Comments

Meta announced today that’s introducing a number of new creator updates across Instagram and Facebook. Most notably, the company revealed that creators on Instagram will soon be able to create their own NFTs and sell them directly to fans, both on and off Instagram. With this update, creators will have access to a toolkit that will help them create, showcase and sell NFTs. People on Instagram will be able to buy the NFTs directly within the app. Meta says the process will take place via traditional in-app purchases across iOS and Android. And for now, Instagram is not taking a cut of the creators’ revenues. Meta is testing this new feature with a small group of creators in the U.S. and plans to expand it to more countries in the future. Instagram is also adding support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet, which join the blockchains and wallets that it already supports, including Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, Dapper Wallet, Ethereum, Polygon and Flow. In addition, information for select collections where the metadata has been enriched by OpenSea, such as collection name and descriptions, will now be available on Instagram. In addition the NFT updates, Instagram is also expanding access to subscriptions to all eligible creators in the U.S. The social network began testing subscriptions in January with a small group of creators. The feature lets creators offer their followers paid access to exclusive Instagram Live videos and Stories. Subscribers also receive a special badge that helps them stand out in the comments section and creators’ inboxes. Meta also announced that Facebook is increasing access to Stars, which let creators earn money directly from followers on Reels, live and video on demand. Facebook is also going to start testing automatic onboarding for creators, which means that the ability to send stars will automatically appear on their content. Facebook is also bringing Stars to non-video content, such as photos and text posts. For creators who are already using Stars, Facebook is bringing Stars Party to reels. A Stars Party is a Stars community challenge that ends in a celebration if the creator reaches their goal, Meta says. The social network is also giving creators on Facebook more tools to engage with people who send Stars. For example, creators will be able to add a filter in Comments Manager that displays all of a creator’s Stars comments in one place, which will give creators the option to reply to multiple comments at once. Meta also announced that it’s introducing gifts on Instagram, starting with reels, to give creators a new way to earn money from their fans. The new feature lets fans send gifts on reels by purchasing Stars within Instagram. Meta is testing this feature with a small group of creators in the U.S. first, and plans to expand it to more creators soon. In addition, Meta is expanding its professional mode profile setting on Facebook to all creators. Professional mode is designed to be used by creators looking to monetize their followings on the social network. Facebook began testing professional mode with select creators in December 2021 and is now offering it to anyone on its platform. The new changes come at a time when Meta is investing in its creator user base, as it sees the potential in a new revenue stream that comes from things like creator subscriptions. With these new updates, Instagram is trying to shore up its platform against the threat of competition, namely from TikTok, which has attracted a growing number of creators. And as Meta continues to build the metaverse, it’ll need the support of creators, so it’s not surprising that it’s looking to broaden its offerings for creators.

Meta to ditch human-curated Facebook News stories globally • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 2, 2022Posted in Facebook, facebook news, Media & Entertainment, meta, SocialNo Comments

Some three years after first introducing a curated news section for publishers, Meta has confirmed that it’s ditching the humans and leaning entirely on algorithms for Facebook News in all markets where it’s available. Meta, then known simply as Facebook, introduced Facebook News back in 2019, kicking off initially to a small subset of users in the U.S. before eventually expanding nationwide and into international markets starting with the U.K., Germany, Australia and France. Facebook News, essentially, is a dedicated tab inside Facebook that surfaces notable local and international news relevant to each market. Although most of the surfaced articles were already determined algorithmically, there was a “top stories” section curated by humans. Soon, this section will also be determined by algorithms. Image Credits: Facebook News As per a report in U.K. trade publication Press Gazette today, Meta is ending a contract it had with Axel Springer-owned Upday, which provided the freelance workforce that powered news curation in the U.K. market, albeit with heavy direction from the powers-that-be at Meta. As an aside, this followed shortly after a negative report from Press Gazette detailing some of the working conditions the freelancers had to contend with. “We are always evaluating our global curation partnerships based on user and product needs,” a Meta spokesperson said in a stock statement. The changes will come into effect in the U.K. some time in early 2023. However, the Meta spokesperson confirmed to ZebethMedia that it will in fact be ending human-curated stories in all markets where Facebook News operates. As noted by Press Gazette, Upday originally curated the German news tab, but due to conflict-of-interest concerns owing to parent company Axel Springer’s association with the news industry, Meta gave the curation contract to a local press agency called the Deutschen Presse-Agentur (DPA) earlier this year. But in the wake of this latest news from Meta, it seems the DPA’s role in curating the top stories in Facebook News will be limited to the duration of its remaining contract. Bad news While news-sharing has been a cornerstone of the Facebook platform almost since its inception, it’s clear the company has been making moves to deprioritize this aspect of the social network in favor of the so-called creator economy. Part of this has also involved renaming the trusty ol’ news feed simply as “feed.” But this shift has been driven, perhaps, by a broader industrial pushback that has led to new legislation in countries such as Australia that now stipulate that online platforms such as Facebook compensate publishers for their content. Similar mandates are working their way toward fruition in other markets too, including the U.S. While Meta is seemingly reducing its investment in news — from a human perspective, at least — there is no indication that Facebook News itself is going the way of the dodo any time soon. But that is one potential outcome here, given the company claims that creator-driven content is what its users are most interested in — both on Facebook and on Instagram. The Meta spokesperson said that it makes little sense to over-invest in areas that most of its users are not interested in.

Facebook expands its professional mode profile setting to all creators globally • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Apps, Creators, Facebook, meta, SocialNo Comments

Meta has announced the global expansion of its professional mode profile setting on Facebook to all creators. Professional mode is designed to be used by creators looking to monetize their followings on the social network. Facebook began testing professional mode with select creators in December 2021 and is now offering it to anyone on its platform. Professional mode is somewhat similar to Pages in the sense that it gives creators a separate profile to build their presence on the social network. In a blog post, Facebook said that it sees professional mode as a way to “build a public following, earn money from various monetization programs, and connect with your audience in more meaningful ways.” The profile setting gives creators access to monetization features and analytics tools, such as Facebook’s Reels Play bonus program that allows you to earn money for the reels you share. Professional mode also gives eligible creators access to Stars, which lets you earn money directly from followers on reels, live and video on demand. In-stream ads will also be launching to eligible professional mode creators, which gives them the opportunity to earn money by enabling ads before, during or after longer videos on demand on Facebook. The company is also testing ads on Facebook Reels on professional mode with a select group of creators across the globe. The company says the ad format integrates into reels by placing ads on reels or in between looping reels. Creators on professional mode also get access to subscriptions, which gives creators the option to share subscriber-only content on the social network. Subscriptions haven’t fully rolled out yet, and are still in the testing phase. “Professional mode allows you to build a global audience of followers, while still staying connected to friends and family from your personal Facebook profile,” the company said in the blog post. “As you post public content, you’ll have access to features designed to help you obtain and engage new followers – that were previously only available on Pages.” The expansion comes at a time when Meta is investing in its creator user base, as it sees the potential in a new revenue stream that comes from things like creator subscriptions. As Meta continues to build the metaverse, it’ll need the support of creators, so it’s not surprising that it’s looking to broaden its offerings for creators.

India to create committees with veto power over social media content moderation • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in Facebook, Google, Government & Policy, india, meta, TwitterNo Comments

India will set up grievance committees with the veto power to reverse content moderation decisions of social media firms, it said today, moving ahead with a proposal that has rattled Meta, Google and Twitter. The panels, called Grievance Appellate Committee, will be created within three months, it said. In an amendment to the nation’s new IT law that went into effect last year, the Indian government said any individual aggrieved by the social media’s appointed grievance officer may appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee, which will comprise a chairperson and two whole time members appointed by the government. The Grievance Appellate Committee will have the power to reverse the social media firm’s decision, the government said. “Every order passed by the Grievance Appellate Committee shall be complied with by the intermediary concerned and a report to that effect shall be uploaded on its website,” New Delhi said in a statement. Shortly after India proposed creating such panels, the US-India Business Council (USIBC), part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), both raised concerns about the independence of such committees if the government controlled their formation. Both the firms represent tech giants including Google, Meta and Twitter. (More to follow)

Meta’s metaverse wager is also a bet on founder control • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in EC Consumer Applications, EC Newsletter, Facebook, meta, meta earnings, reality labs, Social, The ExchangeNo Comments

Meta’s other bet is making Alphabet’s long-running Other Bets segment appear cheap, both in cash and market cap terms. Shares of Facebook’s parent company plummeted after the company reported huge costs and losses associated with its future-facing metaverse project, accompanied by a revenue decline that, while forex-impacted, was still far from the heady days when Meta only seemed to grow no matter the business climate. And the company is signaling that more spending is coming. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on ZebethMedia+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Meta’s trailing results and future operational guidance pushed its shares down just under 23% in pre-market trading. That the company is not changing course even after shedding more than half of its value, measured from 2021 highs, amid public calls from investors for a course-correction is notable. Today, I want to go over the company’s results as they relate to Reality Labs, or what is colloquially known as the Meta metaverse project, and what the company said in its earnings report. Meta, I believe, is behaving like a startup — wagering a large portion of its wealth on building what’s next. If you don’t agree with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the future, I feel you.

Meta posts another revenue decline as investors voice metaverse concerns • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 26, 2022Posted in Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, meta, SocialNo Comments

Earlier this year, Meta posted its first quarterly revenue decline. Once again, Meta’s financials aren’t inspiring much faith in its investors this quarter. Meta’s revenue declined 4% year over year to hit $27.7 billion; but Meta CFO David Wehner pointed out on the earnings call today that some of this decline is owed to inflation. Meanwhile, net income was just $4.395 billion, down from $9.194 billion year over year. This decline in income is mostly due to Meta’s huge investment in the metaverse. Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual reality division, lost $3.672 billion this quarter. The same thing happened in Q1, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg justified a $3 billion loss by saying that the 2030s will be “exciting.” Image Credits: Meta (opens in a new window) “There’s still a long road ahead to build the next computing platform. But we’re clearly doing leading work here. This is a massive undertaking and it’s often gonna take a few versions of each product before they become mainstream,” Zuckerberg said on today’s earnings call. “But I think that our work here is going to be of historic importance and create the foundation for an entirely new way that we will interact with each other and blend technology into our lives, as well as the foundation for the long term of our business.” Meta also casually dropped the news that it will launch its next consumer-grade Quest headset next year, which is responsible for some of these costs. Meta just shipped its first high-grade Quest Pro headsets this week. Zuckerberg also elaborated on Meta’s overall plans for the metaverse. He’s now referring to Horizon Worlds, the company’s underwhelming social VR platform, as something that Meta is “iterating on out in the open.” He also called the platform an “early product.” “Obviously it has a long way to go before it’s going to be what we aspire for it to be,” Zuckerberg said about Horizon Worlds. “We think we’re doing some leading work there, but obviously we need to get that into the product and continue innovating on that.” He also emphasized Meta’s commitment to developing VR and AR technology in general. When it comes to social media, Zuckerberg shared some updated figures. He said that there are now more than 140 billion Reels plays across Facebook and Instagram, which is a 50% increase from six months ago. Across all platforms, Reels has a $3 billion annual revenue run rate. As the company has stated in past earnings calls, Meta is investing heavily in AI content discovery to compete with platforms like TikTok. Meta also shared that hiring will significantly slow next year. The company added 3,700 net new employees in Q3, down from 5,700 net additions in Q2. “We expect hiring to slow dramatically going forward and to hold the headcount roughly flat next year relative to current levels,” Wehner said.