Just when the year seemed to be packed up with a lot of exciting stuff in its kitty, as we went on to catch a glimpse of it at the star-studded CES 2023, things changed drastically in no time. Much like human life in general. 

First, the all-new AI chatbot ChatGPT by OpenAI, not only grabbed the eyeballs but also raised the eyebrows as well. And this was quickly followed up by the devastating news of tech-giant Google firing as many as 12,000 employees overnight.

Let’s delve deeper with the story to find out what led to this shocking incident and what lies as the aftermath. 

Parul Koul, executive chair of Alphabet Workers Union-CWA said in a statement, “Alphabet leadership claims ‘full responsibility’ for this decision, but that is little comfort to the 12,000 workers who are now without jobs.” [Image Credit: Freepik]

Google Layoffs: The Story Behind the Story 

For the uninitiated, this happens to be the largest ever layoff in the company’s history, as its CEO Sundar Pichai announced to the world that the tech power-player has decided to let go 6% of its total global workforce. Pichai stated that it was indeed a tough call and he takes full responsibility for this shocking development. He said that the company had to conduct this large-scale firing in order to adapt with the changed scenario, which has tweaked all equations upside down. 

Pichai himself wrote in the email sent to the Googlers, which was later shared by Google on its website, “I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. … The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.” 

Let’s have a quick look at the ‘decisions that led’ to the Google Layoffs, while also shedding light on the other important factors that have something seriously to do with this disaster and other major talking points. 

• Google along with most other tech companies embarked on a hiring spree during the pandemic times. This was done to encash on the new opportunities that those otherwise gruesome times came with. For your information, Google’s parent  company, Alphabet’s total workforce rose from 150,000 to 187,000 within less than a year. 

But the dividends were short-lived. The stocks of Mountain View, California-based Alphabet, had plummeted by 30% in the last 12 months, something which speaks volumes about the current state. Pichai himself says in his letter, “We hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

• Pichai started to cut down costs in July, when he labeled the company’s productivity “not where it needs to be.” Since then Google has shut shop the hardware division’s laptop efforts, spun off Project Loon, downsized the Area 120 “idea incubator” group in half, closed Google Stadia, decided to invest less in Google Assistant, merged Waze into Google Maps, cut 15 percent of Alphabet health company Verily’s workforce, and cut 17 percent of the staff at the “Intrinsic” Alphabet robotics company.

If we connect these dots, the reading was already on the wall. 

• There’s an increasing fear of global recession in the air. We saw the Meta layoffs, the Twitter mass exodus, shortly after the company conducted layoffs and a host of tech layoffs in recent times – Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, Lyft, HP, Cisco, Intel – the long-list goes on and on. 

Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown opined, “It is clear that Alphabet is not immune from the tough economic backdrop, with worries about a U.S. recession growing.”

• Alphabet has been one of the pioneers in AI, for years. But pretty recently, the surge of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is backed by Microsoft, has started to make things difficult for it. 

What’s Next and the Other Side of the Story? 

Contrary to what Pichai has said to justify the Google Layoffs, Parul Koul, executive chair of Alphabet Workers Union-CWA said in a statement, “Alphabet leadership claims ‘full responsibility’ for this decision, but that is little comfort to the 12,000 workers who are now without jobs.” 

She slammed the top-brass of the management by further adding, “This is egregious and unacceptable behavior by a company that made $17 billion dollars in profit last quarter alone.” The fact that even workers spending close to two decades on the company were not spared, has shook the entire tech industry. 

Meanwhile, as Google sacks a significant chunk of its workforce, the panic grows even further. Tech layoffs don’t seem to dwindle a bit, as more and more companies gear up to orchestrate disposing of employees. In a way, this opens up the nakedness of the tech world, where words like humanity, empathy and sensitivity appear to be from a distant planet and acknowledgement or consideration for ‘loyalty’ has long faded into oblivion. 

It has been learnt that Google sacks 12,000 of its employees “to ensure that our [Google’s] people and roles are aligned with our [its] highest priorities as a company.” The Mountain View-headquartered tech-giant is reported to focus more on AI in the coming days, which also found reflection in Pichai’s statement. 

We will keep a close tab on how Google shapes after this highly controversial mass firings and how the tech world responds to the series of layoffs amidst the rising fears of a global recession. Stay tuned, we will get back to you soon with further updates. 

The post Examining the Google Layoffs: Cause, Effect and the Flip Side of the Coin appeared first on Technowize.

This comes as a huge shock to the global tech industry as it adds to the woes in a great deal. Moreover, the global economy was already volatile and this dampens the slow process of an attempted market recovery, to a great extent. The topsy-turvy situation has now become way too problematic as the illusion of a turnaround has just broken into pieces. 

In a nutshell, this is massive and the effects will not remain limited within the peripheries of the tech industry itself. Rather, it will have larger ramifications, affecting the world economy in general.

Let’s delve deeper into the Google layoffs, which has sent shock waves across the world, to figure out what it actually means to the tech world and the equations might just turn upside down. 

Considering all aspects, the Google layoffs make it almost certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg and others will follow suit soon. [Image Credit: Freepik]

Google Layoffs Open up the Pandora’s Box 

Google’s parent company Alphabet has orchestrated the largest ever layoff in its history as it decided to cut down 6% of its total global workforce. CEO Sundar Pichai took responsibility for the worst of the tech layoffs in recent times, as he tried to sound apologetic in a press release. 

It has been learnt that the company will give some compensation along with a severance package to the 12,000 employees affected by the sudden shock. 

Considering all aspects, the Google layoffs make it almost certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg and others will follow suit soon. 

The Bubble Has Been Bursted 

Last year was marred by a host of tech layoffs. On one hand, Twitter conducted a massive layoff immediately after Elon Musk took over, followed by a mass exodus in the company. Twitter is yet to recover from those events and the social media giant is now leaning dangerously at the edge. 

Whereas, on the other hand, the Meta layoffs shook the entire world, as Mark Zuckerberg simply washed his hands off and continued with his over-ambitious, multi-billion Metaverse project, which is yet to get a kick. 

But, there was a feeling that things are changing slowly and the global tech market is moving in the right direction. However, just when the industry seemed to cool down and appeared making gradual progress, the Google layoffs came as an absolute shocker from the Silicon Valley to tear apart the apparent safety valve. 

Google Layoffs: There’s Much More in Store

Of late, in addition to the Google layoffs, a series of tech layoffs have taken place. From Microsoft to Amazon and Intel to Salesforce, tech players have trimmed their workforce overnight. 

All of these tech layoffs indicate a massive downfall in Silicon Valley as well as the global tech industry in general. But sadly, the aftershocks will be felt all across the globe. 

Total Panic

People in the tech sector have become panic-stricken, as there’s a fear in the air about further tech layoffs in the coming days. With the rise of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, there were strong speculations that it could lead to an array of IT layoffs and those fears have started to become realities, sadly. 

What’s Next? 

Google layoffs and the other tech layoffs which have taken place in the last few days, will surely lead to more IT layoffs. Moreover, these events give rise to the threat of another global recession, triggering up the trauma of the 2008 Global Recession and the 1928 Great Depression. 

We will keep a close eye on this and will get back to you with exclusive updates. 

The post Google Layoffs Add Fresh Blow to the Volatile Tech Market appeared first on Technowize.

Meta Layoffs: Worst in Years

Tech layoffs are nothing new, but the recent one by Meta is certainly the worst of its kind in years. Though the mass exodus initiated by Twitter of late, was way higher in terms of percentage (50% compared to 13%), the number of people directly affected by the Meta layoffs, is almost thrice than that of the Twitter one. 

On November 9, 2022, more than 11,000 employees from Meta Inc. received emails, which informed that the parent company of popular social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, has decided to downsize the organization by 13% and let them go. This immediately drove other employees into panic mode, for obvious reasons. 

However, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to assure them through the official statement – “To those who are staying, I know this is a difficult time for you too. Not only are we saying goodbye to people we’ve worked closely with, but many of you also feel uncertainty about the future. I want you to know that we’re making these decisions to make sure our future is strong.”

The Metaverse fallout must be put to blame for the downfall of Meta Inc.

Doesn’t Seem like an One-off Incident

Days ago, Twitter conducted a massive layoff, which saw them reducing their overall human resource by around 50%. This happened immediately after Tesla owner Elon Musk accomplished the $44 billion takeover. Musk simply cited that the social media platform was losing $4 million everyday to bear the operational costs and terminated the contracts of 7,500 employees including erstwhile CEO Parag Agarwal. 

One must take note that business software firm Salesforce and social media giant Snap, Inc. have followed suit by organizing mass layoffs. There are strong speculations in the market regarding some huge tech layoffs in the coming days. Many versions are doing the rounds along with leaked reports and insights from market experts. The names include tech-giants like Intel and Microsoft. 

Therefore, taking all of these into consideration alongside the predictions by several renowned data analysts, economists and financial pundits, it can be fairly stated that there could be more such tech layoffs in this quarter itself. 

Meta Layoffs: The Inside Story 

Last year, Meta was valued at $1 trillion at one point. Since then, its total valuation has plunged down to $250 million and that too within less than a year. During this time, Meta stocks have fallen by more than 70%. The company which was once hailed for offering out of the world perks, decided to do away with laundry, dry cleaning and dinner facility for its employees, back in March, 2022. Many experts managed to spot red flags at that point itself. 

While announcing the Meta layoffs via a press release, Mark Zuckerberg also revealed that the company has decided to continue with the hiring freeze till the end of the first quarter of 2023 – “We’re also extending our hiring freeze through Q1 with a small number of exceptions.” 

Pretty recently, Meta disclosed that its quarterly profits have gone down by 50%. For the second consecutive quarter, its sales experienced a sharp decline, whereas, its overall expenditure rose by 19%. Interestingly, the number of employees at Meta Inc. at the end of September was almost 28 percent higher than a year before. 

In such a scenario, Mark Zuckerberg seemed to have lost the plot and he had little option but to resort to such a terrible decision, which has started to raise serious questions about his company’s current stature. 

The Metaverse products are found to be niche and garnering no where near the projected sales figures by Meta Inc. [Image Credit: Meta]

Metaverse Fallout: Tale of an Overambitious Project

The Meta layoffs were coming and Mark Zuckerberg’s overambitious project called Metaverse must be put to blame. Facebook was faring well, in fact, excellent, in terms of business, until it decided to rebrand itself as Meta and Zuckerberg made his passion project Metaverse as the focal point of the company’s business. 

Right from the very beginning, controversy and disasters crossed paths with Metaverse’s journey. MetaX sued Facebook Meta for using the very name Meta. Only last month, Reality Labs, the part of the company dedicated to working on the metaverse, reported operating losses of $3.67 billion in total. It also marked its lowest revenue since the final quarter of 2020. Till date, Meta Inc. has lost around $10 billion in Zuckerberg’s Metaverse project. 

In a bid to restore parity, Meta Quest Pro, the next-gen VR headset, was launched at the Meta Connect 2022 by Mark Zuckerberg’s 3D model. However, the fan reactions of the event didn’t go down well as Zuckerberg was heavily mocked for trying to be cool enough. 

Hence, if we have a close look at the chain of events which unfolded in the last one year or so, it would become quite evident that the Metaverse fallout must be put to blame for the Meta layoffs and the overall downfall of the company in general. 

In a nutshell, the Meta layoffs have exposed the topsy-turvy nature of the company. The way it went on to hire numerous people during the pandemic, when Meta Inc. experienced a huge surge in revenue growth, predicting the growth of the industry, has backfired. At least, Mark Zuckerberg has pointed this to be the main reason behind the Meta layoffs. He sounded a bit emotional in the letter, while holding himself responsible for this incident – “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.” However, Mark Zuckerberg continues to uphold his Metaverse project and Meta Quest 3 awaits us. This is high time, Meta Inc. rethinks about the Metaverse saga, before it’s too late. We need to wait for a while, to see if this leads to another set of tech layoffs around the globe as there’s already panic in the air. 

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