Meta announces massive hiring freeze, blames Apple for revenue slowdown

“We’re facing headwinds including slower revenue growth than anticipated at the start of the year. This is due to a number of factors including the loss of signal from iOS changes…”

What you need to know

Meta says it is vastly reducing the number of new hires it plans to make for the rest of the year.
The company told employees it needs to make a shift because of headwinds affecting revenue growth.
It says changes made by Apple and a “loss of signal” from iOS changes are partly to blame.

Meta says that it plans to drastically reduce hiring for the rest of the year in the face of slowing revenue growth caused in part by Apple’s major iOS privacy changes.

As reported by Business Insider:

Facebook is putting in place a massive hiring freeze and is reducing hiring targets in a move that will impact “almost every team across the company,” executives told employees on Wednesday in internal memos seen by Insider.

CFO David Wehner told employees that while the company was “optimistic” about the future, it needed “to ensure we are making focused, balanced investments to support our most strategic priorities,” citing headwinds including slower revenue growth than anticipated at the start of the year.

Meta says one of the big reasons for this is changes made by Apple to iOS 14 and continued with iOS 15, making it harder to track users across different apps and services using an IDFA identifier. Apple has massively reduced the effectiveness of Facebook’s advertising programs by making this an opt-in feature for users. Apple continues to tout privacy as one of the best iPhone features on offer over its competitors, and says the move has been met with positivity by customers.

Wehner specifically cited “the loss of signal from iOS changes,” seemingly suggesting the company is struggling to offer businesses and advertisers clear insight into the effectiveness of ad campaigns, likely reducing spending.

The company has previously warned that changes made by Apple would cost it $10 billion in 2022, sending shares nosediving.