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Mark Zuckerberg apologized to employees as he announced dramatic layoffs at Meta.

"I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that," he told employees on Wednesday.

Meta said it plans to cut 11,000 jobs, or 13% of staff, a layoff that had been widely anticipated in recent days.

Zuckerberg told employees that Meta had over-invested in recent years after the pandemic led to soaring revenues thanks to increased online activity.

Instead of the continued revenue growth Meta predicted, Zuckerberg said the social media behemoth had been struck by a macroeconomic downturn, skyrocketing competition, and ad revenue losses. 

He said in the memo to employees: "Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected."

Meta, formerly Facebook, has been struggling to retain users, since its rebrand and continued investment in the metaverse. Since the rebrand in October 2021, the company's stock price has slumped around 70%, wiping billions from Zuckerberg's net worth.

In recent months, the company has tightened its belt, introducing hiring freezes and tougher employee performance metrics.

Despite this, Zuckerberg said he still believes Meta is "deeply underestimated as a company today."