Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Senior Meta ads exec departs amid efficiency drive

Published 23/03/2023, 06:00 am
Updated 23/03/2023, 06:12 am
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta Platforms' business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman//File Photo/File Photo

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta Platforms' business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman//File Photo/File Photo

By Katie Paul

(Reuters) - A veteran Meta advertising product executive will leave the company in May, according to an internal announcement seen by Reuters, amid a months-long pruning of projects and staff that Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has dubbed the "year of efficiency."

Dan Levy, currently the social media giant's vice president of business messaging, said in a post to Meta's internal social network on Monday that he wanted to focus on family after losing a child to leukemia.

"I made this decision slowly (over the last 2+ years) and then all of a sudden," he wrote.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed Levy's departure and said business messaging would remain a strategic priority and area of investment for the company this year.

Levy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Levy has been at Meta for 14 years. The business messaging project he heads has been flagged by Zuckerberg for growth potential, although he was replaced last year as overall head of ad and business products.

Previously, Levy ran Meta's ads and business products division, now called Monetization. He was replaced in that role last year by John Hegeman, another long-time executive who had managed ads product under Levy and, in his new role, became Levy's boss.

That larger unit oversaw Meta's adaptation to Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s iOS privacy changes in 2021, a costly disruption that cut Meta's access to the valuable user data around which it had built its targeted advertising business.

The division has tried to build in-app commerce features to make up for that "signal loss," while also using artificial intelligence to improve ad targeting precision, with mixed success.

Executives see business messaging as another part of the solution, as it could finally monetize the popular chat app WhatsApp, which Meta bought for $22 billion in 2014 but has yet to produce significant revenue.

Zuckerberg has said the business line - in which brands pay to use Meta's WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram chat services to sell products and manage customer interactions - is likely to be the company's "next major pillar" of sales growth.

Levy's departure comes amid a difficult season for Meta, which last week announced a second major round of layoffs tied to a restructuring plan to kill off lower-priority projects and "flatten" layers of middle management.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta Platforms' business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman//File Photo/File Photo

Another ads VP on the sales side, Michelle Klein, also announced this week that she was leaving. She led a marketing unit of around 1,000 people and steered the company's rebranding from Facebook (NASDAQ:META) to Meta, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Meta likewise confirmed her departure. Klein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.