On June 2, Beijing time, Facebook parent company meta Shirley Zuckerberg suddenly announced her resignation on Wednesday, ending her 14 year career in the company According to reports of many foreign media, her resignation has a lot to do with the seizure of power by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg
According to two employees of Sandberg, leaving meta was her own decision. She informed Zuckerberg by telephone last weekend. She hoped that Zuckerberg, who was in Hawaii at that time, would be the first to know about it.
End of growth monitoring mode
In 2008, Zuckerberg hired Sandberg, then a Google executive, to join his social networking company. Zuckerberg said at that time that she hired Sandberg because "she has the most relevant industry experience with Facebook, especially when we need to expand the business scale and expand the business globally".
Sandberg responded to the recruitment in the same tone. "It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help another young company grow into a global leader." She said at the time.
That year, Zuckerberg was 23 and Sandberg was 38.
Today, Zuckerberg is exactly the same age as Sandberg when he joined the company, and Facebook has expanded into a behemoth. In the past year, Zuckerberg has begun to introduce this social network into a new direction, that is, the so-called "meta universe" immersive online world, and renamed the company meta. Sandberg, now 52, kept a low profile, because Zuckerberg took over more responsibilities and restructured the company, opening a new chapter.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg in their youth
On Wednesday, Sandberg announced that she would leave this fall. She said in an interview that she had expected to work in the company for only about five years, instead of the current 14 years. She added that she planned to focus on her personal philanthropy and her foundation "lean in" and marry TV producer Tom Bernthal this summer.
"I believe in this company," Sandberg said. She will continue to stay on the board of meta. "Have we done everything right? Absolutely not. Have we learned, listened, grown and invested where we need it? This team is already doing it and will do it."
Zuckerberg also wrote a post on Facebook praising Sandberg, saying that "it is unusual for business cooperation like ours to last so long". He appointed Javier olivan, a longtime product executive, as the next chief operating officer of meta. Olivan has been responsible for most of Facebook's growth over the past 10 years.
From prosperity to decline
Sandberg chose to leave office at a time far from the peak of her reputation in the past 10 years. She graduated from Harvard University and served as chief of staff of Treasury Secretary summers during the Clinton administration. She became famous in Silicon Valley by helping Google develop its newly established targeted advertising business into a multi billion dollar giant.
After joining Facebook, she developed the company's advertising business and was regarded as the growth guardian of the company. Sandberg helped create some desktop advertising models for Facebook, and then successfully developed the company's mobile advertising strategy.
By 2016, Facebook's revenue had reached $27.6 billion, compared with $153million in 2007 before Sandberg joined. Advertising business is still the main financial engine of meta.
Olivian will take over as coo
In 2013, Sandberg's reputation rose further. At that time, she published a feminist business book, lean in. Based on her work experience in government and enterprises, this book has written a declaration for professional women. The book became a best seller and her personal brand, but some critics say Sandberg's advice came from her superior life.
However, after the 2016 presidential election, Facebook faced strict scrutiny because it was abused to incite division and spread misinformation. Sandberg, who was in charge of the company's policy and security team in that election, initially ignored these issues and later postponed a public response.
In 2018, Facebook was also involved in a privacy scandal involving Cambridge analytics, a voter analysis company, which improperly used Facebook data. Sandberg, who is in charge of public relations, is believed to be responsible for the consequences and chaotic response.
Vent
Although seemingly consistent with the outside world, Zuckerberg is increasingly disappointed with Sandberg's response to the crisis. Sandberg privately told her employees that she disagreed with Zuckerberg's decisions on content.
Zuckerberg's shares gave him the majority voting rights in the company, and he began to participate more and more in political decision-making. He made the final decision on the platform speech, including the decision to block trump after the riots in the US Congress on January 6. He also began to improve his public image. With the passage of time, he assumed more roles in supervising different departments of the company, some of which were originally the responsibility of Sandberg alone.
Questions about toxic content, privacy and antitrust violations continue to plague Facebook. Nevertheless, its market value has reached $1trillion.
According to people familiar with the matter, Sandberg has been telling people that she is exhausted and has become the outlet of the company's problems. She had thought of leaving. In 2016, she told her colleagues that if Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wins the election, she is likely to work in Washington. In 2018, after the exposure of Cambridge analysis and Russia's intervention in the 2016 US presidential election, she once again told her colleagues that she was considering leaving, but she did not want to do so when the company was in crisis.
Meta universe seizes power
Last year, Zuckerberg announced a new bet on "the next era of mobile Internet": metauniverse. In his statement, Sandberg was only a supporting role, and the roles of other executives were more prominent.
Facebook's transformation to the meta universe will reduce its dependence on advertising, which has always been Sandberg's sphere of influence. People familiar with the matter said that Sandberg was obviously absent from many meetings on the company's metauniverse plan.
With Zuckerberg's comprehensive reform of the company, focusing on the "meta universe", some of Sandberg's responsibilities were decentralized to other executives. Nick Clegg, President of meta global affairs and former British Deputy Prime Minister, became the company's chief spokesman, a role previously held by Sandberg. Clegg was promoted to President of meta global affairs in February this year.
Meta fully bet on the meta universe
Sandberg's star is fading. She focuses on building an advertising business and increasing the number of small businesses on Facebook.
Besides, she has to pay attention to her personal affairs. Her husband, Dave Goldberg, died unexpectedly in 2015. Later, she met burnsol. During the outbreak, burnsol and his three children moved from Southern California to her home in Silicon Valley. Sandberg had already had two children with Goldberg. A person familiar with the matter said that she was focusing on integrating the two children and preparing for the summer wedding.
The end of an era
The transition from meta to meta universe is not easy. The company has invested heavily in metauniverse products, but its advertising business has suffered setbacks, partly because Apple 's privacy adjustments hurt targeted advertising. In February this year, the market value of meta plummeted by more than 230billion US dollars, the largest one-day decline. Previously, the financial report released by meta showed that it was difficult for the company to make a leap to the meta universe.
Sandberg said in an interview that meta is facing recent challenges, but it will ride out the difficulties, just like facing the challenges of the past. "When we went public, there was no mobile advertising," Sandberg said, referring to the company's rapid transition from desktops to smartphones in the past decade. "We have met this challenge before."
She said that joining Facebook in 2008 was "a lifetime honor and honor".
Zuckerberg said in his Facebook post on Wednesday that Sandberg was crucial to the success of his company. "Shirley has built up our advertising business, hired excellent talents, created our management culture, and taught me how to run a company." He said.
"This is the end of an era." Zuckerberg added.