Twitch, the live streaming platform owned by Amazon, has recently announced that 400 of its employees will be laid off. This news follows the company’s success back in March, when Twitch broke the world record for most concurrent users on an individual streaming channel.
The layoffs come after Twitch reported a “significant increase” in advertising revenue, which comprised more than half of the company’s total revenue. Twitch had a workforce of 2,500 at the start of this year, so these layoffs will amount to 16% of its global workforce, the majority of whom will come from the San Francisco offices.
In a statement issued by Twitch, the company stated that it was continuing to invest in content and its services, but had to reduce its workforce size to “support the long-term growth” of the company. They also noted that the layoffs would also help reduce costs of certain operations.
While the news of layoffs is never welcomed with open arms, Twitch explained that the majority of its layoffs resulted from the reorganization of its departments, the evaluation of duplicate roles, and the completion of its investments in certain initiatives. This means that the majority of the jobs cut were from those sectors where the company had already seen their investments declining over time.
The 400 laid off employees will also reportedly receive severance pay and outplacement services, such as help finding professionals at Twitch and elsewhere.
Overall, while the news of job cuts is unfortunate, Twitch has taken necessary steps to remain financially secure and focus its investments in the right areas. Time will tell how Twitch’s workforce reorganization and restructuring efforts takes shape, and how the company will adjust after the layoffs.
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