While MySpace is looking to downsize, Facebook wants to hire 50% more workers

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Tue, Aug 25 2009 | 0 Comments

While the social networking site MySpace has begun to see its numbers slip and users go on “extended vacations” from the site, Facebook is seeing a spike in users and is now looking to hire 50% more employees sometime in the near future.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that there is a surplus of engineers and that it’s a great environment for the company right now.

The website currently has 1,000 employees and plans on building its workforce, but at a much slower pace than other start-ups. When you compare Facebook to Google, Facebook has barely grown its workforce at all. Google has nearly doubled its staff every year for the three years following the year it went public.

This move could prove to be smart for the site because it is definitely a good way to keep costs down. The site wishes to reach a positive cash flow next year and having fewer employees is a good way to make that happen.

The problem that the site is having with advertisers is that a study showed that people who use social networking sites like Facebook are much less likely to click on ads or purchase anything from the ads on the sites. Currently, Facebook makes its money from advertising and little extras around the site like the “gifts” system where users pay for “gifts” to post on friends’ walls.

I’m sure if you’ve been paying attention to what I say when I talk about social networking sites, Facebook is very obviously my favorite. I rarely log into MySpace anymore and Twitter is something I only use if I’m bored and can’t play on Facebook on my phone. Twitter will likely not even be a blip on my radar once the Pre comes out with a Facebook application.

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Tags: mark zuckerberg, ceo mark, social networking sites