Mark Zuckerberg wants his staff to know that he hasn’t forgotten how to make money.

The CEO, who spent most of the last 12 months fire billions of dollars to transform his empire into a metaverse company in the coming years, reversed course slightly this week, saying that WhatsApp, not the land of avatars, would likely drive sales growth for years to come. Comments made to Meta employees during a company-wide meeting first reported by Reuters, come weeks after a round of mass layoffs impacting 11,000 employees at the company rocked workers and investors alike.

Zuckerberg responded to questions from employees by saying that commercial messaging on WhatsApp and Messenger “will probably be the next big pillar of our business.” Monetization on those two apps…