One by one, the tech CEOs apologized. They had failed to anticipate that their users’ extremely online behavior would return to normal once COVID restrictions lifted. So their projections for growth—in streaming, e-commerce, and the like—were way off. With expenses mounting and growth stagnating, they’d need to cut costs dramatically. Mass layoffs were coming.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a November memo to his employees.
Meta’s now experiencing the hangover, and Zuckerberg is admitting that COVID-inspired behavior changes were more temporary than he thought. “In this case, clearly, we should have stayed closer to the plan that existed in late 2019, early 2020, as opposed to cranking it up,” the ex-employee said.Similar scenarios have played out inside Amazon, Netflix, and Shopify, all of which overextended after the onset of COVID.
As more and more people become disabled by Long Covid or post-covid strokes there may well be more people stuck at home relying on tech companies for accessibility to the world. Maybe it's too soon to say the bet was bad...