Yahoorrific: The bubble is bursting for social media

October 20th, 2008 by Mitch Brisebois

Now that the VC cash is drying up everywhere, big names are announcing layoffs. Yahoo, eBay, and HP is no surprise, but HI5, the 3rd largest SoNet is laying off up to 20%. The AdBRite network is chopping nearly half its workforce. Business SoNet vendor Jive has already axed a third of staff. Seesmic – the video micro-blog axed a third as well. Even porn is having difficulties in these times – Zivity, a type of Digg for adult content is laying off a big part of its staff (no pun intended.)

The message is that these enterprises want/need to get to profitability FAST. No 6-month plan… certainly no 2 year plan. MMCN – Must make cash now. Makes me wonder what will happen to Facebook? The Zuckster is still a couple years away from profitability.

Meanwhile, over at Google, life is apparently still bee-u-tee-ful. Its recruiting campaign gushes about the corporate “love”, free lunches, and the opportunity to work alongside former marines, neurosurgeons, and alligator wrestlers.

Other than your worries about having to share a cube with an alligator wrestler, are you concerned about the tech economy, layoffs, and dwindling entrepreneurial opportunities??