It's a real thunderclap at Facebook.

It's "the end of an era", even commented on his profile, Mark Zuckerberg, boss and founder of the company.

Sheryl Sandberg, Meta's number two, announced her resignation on Wednesday.

Muse of Silicon Valley, it was she who transformed the popular social network into an advertising machine:

“After 14 years, I will be leaving Meta,” confirmed the COO on Facebook.

She will nevertheless remain on the Board of Directors.

Sheryl Sandberg assured that these years "alongside Mark" Zuckerberg have been "the honor and the privilege of a lifetime".

McKinsey, Google, the World Bank on his CV

Mark Zuckerberg for his part recalled that in 2008, when he hired Sheryl Sandberg, he was only 23 years old and knew “nothing about corporate governance”.

She was 38, and a career with prestigious organizations, from the World Bank to the consulting group McKinsey.

She had also worked for the US Treasury as director of personnel and Google as vice president of international sales and operations.

“Sheryl designed the architecture of our advertising business, recruited great people, shaped our corporate culture and taught me how to run a company,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote.

"She created opportunities for millions of people around the world and it's in large part because of her that Meta became the band it is today."

After establishing itself as the world's leading social network in the 2000s, Facebook expanded and acquired other services, such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus.

With some 3.6 billion monthly users, Meta is now worth more than $500 billion.

A spokesperson further said that Javier Olivan would be the new chief operating officer, but Mark Zuckerberg clarified that he does not intend to replace Sheryl Sandberg's position as is.

"I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and our different businesses to be more integrated with each other," he said.

The turn to the metaverse

At the end of 2021, the founder renamed the parent company "Meta", to mark the turning point towards the metaverse, this parallel universe accessible in augmented and virtual reality.

But its economic model remains based on targeted advertising on a very large scale, and therefore on the attention and data of users.

He's been stirring up controversy after controversy since 2016. And many authorities are accusing him of abuse of dominance.

“The debate around social networks no longer has anything to do with the beginnings,” noted Sheryl Sandberg in her long message, where she looks back on the main stages of her years at Facebook.

“To say it hasn't always been easy is an understatement.

But it's normal for it to be difficult.

Our products have a huge impact, so we have a responsibility to design them in a way that protects people's privacy and security”.

Meta will now do so without it.

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