Popular Amazon-owned livestreaming platform Twitch is set to cut over 500 employees, or approximately 35 percent of its workforce, due to financial concerns and mounting losses.
The livestreaming platform, which supports a staggering 1.8 billion hours of live video content per month, has intensified its focus on advertising in recent years. However, nine years after Amazon's acquisition, the platform remains unprofitable.
In a blog post by CEO Dan Clancy on Jan. 10, he acknowledged the "difficult decision" to resize the company. The announcement follows the withdrawal of the company from the South Korean market in December due to high network fees.
"As you all know, we have worked hard over the last year to run our business as sustainably as possible. Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company, and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step of reducing our headcount by just over 500 people across Twitch," he said.
"This will be a very hard day," he added. "Our service exists to empower communities to create, together, and every single one of you has played a vital role in fostering our community and furthering that mission."
According to the blog post, the San Francisco-based company paid out over $1 billion to streamers in the previous year. However, Clancy noted that the organization had been operating based on optimistic growth projections for the next three or more years rather than the current business scale. He outlined that Twitch would now resize itself based on the present scale of its business and "conservative predictions" for its future trajectory.
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Employees in Twitch offices in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Singapore are set to receive emails from Clancy notifying them that they have been fired and providing details about transition support.
Managers will subsequently contact affected employees for one-on-one discussions regarding severance packages. Meanwhile, employees outside the mentioned countries will receive communication from Lauren Nunes, the chief people officer of the company, with additional information about the layoff process.
"I want to close with my sincerest apology to everyone who is leaving Twitch. You are some of the most talented, committed and creative people I have ever worked with. Thank you for everything you’ve done to help us build Twitch and foster our community," Clancy wrote.
Amazon extends its job cuts within its Prime Video and MGM Studios subsidiaries
This latest workforce reduction at Twitch is part of a broader trend of job cuts at Amazon, following the online retail giant's largest-ever corporate job cuts in 2022, which saw the elimination of 27,000 positions across the company. (Related: Amazon to fire 20,000 employees – the largest staff reduction in company's history.)
In October of the same year, Amazon continued its cost-cutting measures with additional layoffs in its music division, encompassing the company's audio streaming platform and digital storefront for songs. Meanwhile, on the same day of the Twitch layoff, Amazon announced the same within its Prime Video and MGM Studios subsidiaries.
Mike Hopkins, the Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, sent an email to several hundred employees affected by the decision of the company.
"Throughout the past year, we've looked at nearly every aspect of our business with an eye towards improving our ability to deliver even more breakthrough movies, TV shows and live sports in a personalized, easy-to-use entertainment experience for our global customers," wrote Hopkins.
"As a result, we've identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact," he continued. "As a result of these decisions, we will be eliminating several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization."
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