After dominating the social media landscape for the better part of a generation, Meta has announced its first ever staff cuts.
In a company-wide email, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wrongly believed the tech sector's boom would outlive the pandemic.
In recent years, the company's focus has shifted towards creating its virtual reality Metaverse, which Mr Zuckerberg believes will eventually replace smartphones.
Meta is spending more than $15 billion annually developing it - and that has investors concerned.
The tech giant has already lost $14.5 billion this year, along with two thirds of its stock value.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said the company's decision to focus on its Metaverse was a risky one - and it isn't paying off.
With about 2.9 billion active users, Facebook is still the world's largest social media platform.
But this year, it saw its first ever decline in members, and TikTok was most probably to blame.
