Twitch to reportedly lay off 35% of its workforce

Popular streaming service Twitch is about to lay off 35% of its workforce — equal to about 500 workers — according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday.

The Amazon-owned, video game-focused platform could announce the job losses as early as Wednesday, people familiar with the matter told the news outlet.

The cuts, if confirmed, would follow a round of layoffs in March last year that impacted 400 positions, meaning Twitch could be set to lose almost 1,000 workers in less than 12 months.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said at the time that the business had been impacted by challenging economic conditions, and that user and revenue growth had failed to keep pace with the the company’s expectations. It therefore had to make the cuts “to run our business sustainably,” Clancy said.

It’s not clear if the same reasons will be given for the expected next round of layoffs, but all should be revealed in the coming days.

In a further indication of pressures affecting the company, Twitch exited South Korea just last month, with Clancy describing the cost of operating there as “prohibitively expensive” despite it making a “significant effort” to reduce those costs.

On top of that, a number of key executives departed Twitch toward the end of last year.

Twitch has been trying to boost revenue via an increased focus on ads on the platform, but in the nine years since Amazon acquired the streaming company, the business has yet to turn a profit, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

In the wider video game industry, companies big and small had a rough year in 2023, with many reducing the size of their workforce. But despite the challenges, gamers still have plenty to look forward to in 2024.

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