Live streaming platform Twitch is kicking off the new year by giving 35% of its staff the boot.
After news leaked about potential layoffs on Jan. 9, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has finally confirmed in a blog post that the company has cut over 500 people from its staff due to cost cutting, and some Twitch creators aren’t too thrilled about the decision.
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“Over the last year, we’ve been working to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch will be here for the long run and throughout the year we have cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient,” wrote Clancy in an email sent to employees. “Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business.”
Clancy also states in the email that although “the Twitch business remains strong” as the company has paid over $1 billion to streamers in 2023, the company is being resized based on its current scale of “business and conservative predictions” on how it expects to grow in the future.
The CEO also apologized to employees for the “anxiety” the news leak about the layoffs caused the day before.
“I also want to acknowledge how disappointed I was yesterday that this information leaked,” he wrote. “I am sorry for all of the anxiety that it caused over the last several hours.”
Many content creators on Twitch took to X to express their concern about the recent cost-cutting move from the platform.
This sucks for all those “extra” people they brought on board and are now jobless.
— Rich (@OneShotRich) January 10, 2024
I do understand the need for slimming in terms of revenue to expenses, but they should have never been in this position in the first place.
Now people are affected by poor decision making.
Gut wrenching to hear about @twitch layoffs. 😭
— Cohh Carnage (@CohhCarnage) January 10, 2024
With 500+ people being laid off (1/3 of the entire company) there is almost zero doubt this will dramatically affect our lives on the platform.
Best of vibes to those being hit. Hope you land on your feet quickly. 👊
Makes me worried about the future of the Twitch platform.
— RG | Captain Caldwell (@CptCaldwell) January 10, 2024
The recent move from Twitch comes after it announced in March last year that it had laid off over 400 employees due to “the current macroeconomic environment” and “user and revenue growth” not keeping pace with the company’s expectations.
Later in 2023, Amazon, which owns Twitch, reported in its third-quarter earnings that its net income has increased to $9.9 billion in the third quarter, which is higher than the $2.9 billion it earned in net income during the same quarter in 2022.
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