Last week, tech layoffs and the feud between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter blanketed the digital marketing news-sphere. The headlines for this week follow a similar trend: people in charge fear a recession and everyone is fighting.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Wolves Den, your hub for the latest in digital marketing news (although we might as well start calling it the leading social media legal soap opera recap).
Recession-Fueled Employee Dumps and Hiring Slumps
Even at companies like Meta that haven’t begun laying off workers just yet, the vibe at the office certainly appears to indicate that the cuts are coming. After weeks of watching the big tech industry reduce their hiring and drop double-digit percentages of their workforce, other sectors are following suit. This week, Vox Media started cutting staff, and the layoff train doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon.
Rumors are that these actions are precautionary measures in the face of an impending recession, but before we sound the alarm, it’s worth noting that the panic about economic downturn could become a self-fulfilling prophecy: If enough entities believe a recession is coming, then changing behaviors may inevitably bring one about.
Regardless of economic speculation, the volatile job market in these industries is a concerning sign, and we will come to find out whether the reduction of their workforce is a boon or a bane for the corporations taking part in the trend.
This Week’s Twists in the Social Media Legal Soap Opera
Lawsuits increasingly populate the big tech universe, and this week the top player is still Twitter and its continued brawl with Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk. For instance, Musk continues to push for a delay on the trial currently set for mid-October. However, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta cropped up multiple times in the headlines as well.
A 12-year-old startup has filed a suit against the company formerly called Facebook precisely because of the name change; having worn the META brand since its inception, the small business claims it was destroyed after the Facebook rebrand last year and is now suing for infringement. The startup alleges that Facebook/Meta willfully infringe META’s two legal trademarks. Additionally, they claim that the move created unfair competition, as some of their biggest customers were lured away to work with Facebook.
But that’s not all the legal trouble that the social media giant recently acquired. In an attempt to perhaps make up for past wrongs of not stopping Facebook from absorbing Instagram and WhatsApp, the FTC is suing to block the Zuckerberg conglomerate from also buying Within Unlimited, a company that makes the virtual reality fitness app Supernatural. With Meta also considering releasing their grip on COVID-19 misinformation on their apps, this is likely not going to be the last time that federal organizations attempt to impact Meta’s business decisions through legal action this year.
Let Them Fight: The Wars Between Billionaires and Tech Giants
In addition to the official lawsuits, blame-game drama continues unfolding online, specifically regarding social media revenue losses. Twitter, for instance, blames Musk’s revoked takeover bid for their reported drop in earnings. Although perhaps valid given that the stock market fluctuates often at Musk’s whim, Twitter has also been freezing hiring for months and has systematically reduced office space and amenities to cut costs. None of these things inherently imply direct hits to the company’s bottom line, but what’s certain is that there are many troublesome factors at play for the social media platform.
Similarly, Facebook revenue reporting revealed this week that the iOS privacy update allowing users to opt out of data tracking caused a dramatic drop in ad-based earnings for Meta. Snap, Inc. also accused the Apple privacy update for recent losses. Last week, we looked at a change in consumer preferences regarding personal data sharing and its potential effect on digital advertising as a whole, and with this feature that iPhone users are surely going to be unwilling to part with, this shift will continue to cause strife for digital platforms until companies learn how to adapt with the market.
TikTok Sets New Social Feed Standards… For Some
Instagram users have seen it coming; everyone’s feed is increasingly more and more about consuming short-form vertical video than it is about connecting with your friends’ photos. This is intentional, as Meta revealed this week that in an impending design update, Facebook will also begin to employ the TikTok-style, algorithm-generated content feed.
While this may be perceived as a shift across the board, Twitter appears to be going in the opposite direction, testing an array of features that remind veteran internet users of old MySpace or LiveJournal moods, statuses and tags. Will this end up being a battle between innovation and nostalgia, and if so, who do you think will win?
Tune in next week for the latest news in digital marketing from the Wolves Den.
