The layoffs will affect what are known as the company's "Family of Apps" — Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp — and the virtual reality business Reality Labs, Zuckerberg said. They will also affect Meta's business teams, which are being restructured, he said, adding that the company plans to hire fewer people next year and is extending their hiring freeze into the first quarter of next year "with a small number of exceptions."

Zuckerberg said the development follows his decision to "significantly increase our investments" at the start of the pandemic.

He told employees he made that decision based on the belief that e-commerce would continue to grow and provide a strong source of revenue post-pandemic — a prediction that turned out to be wrong, he said.

"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," he said. "I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that."