Sources: Meta closes Workplace, its corporate communications business

Facebook once had big ambitions: to become a major player in business communication and productivity, but today the parent company of the social network Meta will close a very important chapter in this story. TechCrunch has learned that Meta is shutting down Workplace, a version of Facebook designed to enable communication between business teams and broader organizations.

We’ve reached out to the company for comment, but our sources tell us the company plans to make an official announcement later today. Sources indicate that the platform will operate as usual until September 2025. Then, it will be read-only until May 2026. After that, the service will be completely decommissioned.

According to an internal memo, Facebook recommends Zoom-owned Workvivo as a migration-ready alternative. Workvivo, another business communications platform, was acquired by Zoom in 2023. We have the full memo below.

It is not yet known how many employees will be affected by the closure.

The move marks the end of a decade of existence for the product, which had big plans to bring a differentiated revenue stream to Facebook, but ultimately found it too difficult to compete with Slack and later Microsoft’s Teams.

The division has been strategically up in the air for some time, so this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. We had even heard that as a result of Covid, Meta had been approached by outside investment firms to spin off the division as a standalone company which would then get outside investment.

Meta declined, one source said, primarily because Facebook (and now Meta) viewed Workplace as a “strategic asset.” This is not because Workplace generates sales approaching the billions that Meta makes from advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but because it was important to present a more diverse face to the market. And it helped Meta make a more diverse case to other stakeholders: for regulators, it was more than just an overly powerful social network; and for organizations, that Facebook could do more for them than just sell ads.

“It helps make Facebook (and Meta) look like an adult,” the source said.

Clearly, the company’s priorities now focused on AI are changing, which could lead to further reorganizations over time.

Some information about Workplace:

It was originally built on how Facebook itself used its flagship social network. The company was already operating a more closed version of Facebook for its own internal teams, and the company saw an opportunity to develop it as a product aimed at business users.

Its working title was Facebook @ Work and it was built by a team in London, led by Lars Rasmussen, once a co-creator of Google Maps, who was recruited by Facebook and worked as the company’s head of engineering. (He had long wanted to create a business service on Facebook, and this was his baby.)

Eventually, the product launched in beta under the name Workplace and subsequently developed a number of third-party integrations, with Facebook seeing an opportunity to create more productivity gains for users around the core purpose of the communication.

Over time, Workplace managed to attract some very important clients, but eventually there was an unexpected twist in the road. Slack went viral and found huge traction, spurring Microsoft’s creation of Teams. Workplace initially planned to stand up to them, but ultimately gave ground and partnered with Teams for some features.

Over time, a number of key employees who were building Workplace left, and one source tells us the product never really recovered after Covid.

“Growth has slowed” after the pandemic, the source said, and with the company in something of an identity crisis these days — after all, it’s not even called Facebook anymore, and it’s not not even clear that Meta makes much sense either — also shown to be more decisive in killing all non-essential projects.

The memo follows below:

Dear Workplace administrator,
Today we’re sharing that we’ve made the difficult decision to close Meta’s Workplace in 2026.

We understand that this decision will be disruptive for businesses, organizations, and partners who rely on Workplace every day. Our priority is to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Time limit
Our current plans allow you to continue using Workplace as usual until August 31, 2025. The account management and customer support teams will remain available to answer any questions or concerns during this time. Additionally, Meta will receive a 50% Workplace discount starting September 1, 2024.

From September 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026, Workplace will be free and accessible only to read and download existing data, after which access will be terminated and your Workplace instance will be deleted.
Upload your information
To download your data, you can enable the Download Your Info tool for your users so they can download their data directly from their Workplace settings. If you want to export information from your Workplace, you can use the Workplace API.

While we appreciate that you already have an existing technology partner, Workvivo by Zoom is Meta’s only preferred migration partner, and we will work with Zoom to provide additional tools and services to facilitate a better transition for Workplace customers to Zoom’s Workvivo product.