iWorld
Facebook prepares to insert video ads into users’ news feeds
MUMBAI: According to media reports the social network giant Facebook plans to let marketers insert 15-second video ads directly into people’s news feeds. This step needs to be taken with caution as it may not go down well with its users.
Buyers could target the age and gender of the users who’d find the ads in their feeds reports claim citing “two people familiar with the matter.” Ads could sell for as much as $2.5 million a day depending on how many people watch them.
Execs appear to appreciate the possibility of a backlash: CEO Mark Zuckerberg has delayed the plan “at least twice” as he considers ways to minimise user ire over the ads, for example by offering them in high-def and ensuring that people won’t see the same pitch more than three times a day. But the sales opportunity apparently is too lucrative to resist.
Advertisers likely will spend nearly $64 billion in the US this year on TV ads vs $36 billion on the web. That’s why digital powers including Google, Yahoo, and AOL are gunning for TV advertising – including by staging their own NewFront sales pitches to ad buyers as they also gather for television networks’ upfront presentations.
Last week Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told analysts that her company has “a massive and engaged audience around the world that brands can use to build awareness and drive sales. Every night 88 million to 100 million people are actively using Facebook during primetime TV hours in United States alone.” Nielsen has been working with Facebook to come up with ratings for online videos that would be similar to TV ratings.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
