Twitch announced another 500 staff layoff

The Amazon-owned live streaming platform is set to trim its workforce by a significant 35%, equivalent to approximately 500 employees, as reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Staff reduction in Twitch

Twitch has officially acknowledged these staff reductions in a blog post released on Wednesday, where they also provided a copy of the email dispatched to employees, alerting them to the impending cuts. In this message, CEO Dan Clancy expressed his disappointment regarding the premature "leak" of this news, stating that the company had intended to inform its employees on Wednesday morning but was unable to expedite the timeline. Clancy further emphasized that despite disbursing over $1 billion to streamers in the previous year, Twitch's current organizational size did not align with its growth trajectory.

Twitch has a long-term viability plan

He remarked, "Throughout the year, we have diligently worked towards establishing a more sustainable business model to ensure Twitch's long-term viability. We've implemented cost-saving measures and made several efficiency-driven decisions. Unfortunately, despite these endeavors, it has become evident that our organization still exceeds the necessary scale in relation to our business. Like many other tech companies, we are now adjusting our organizational size to match the current scope of our operations and conservative growth projections."

Another lay-off on the way

This marks another setback for the already embattled company, which experienced a substantial round of layoffs the previous year due to shifts in leadership, escalating operational expenses, and growing dissatisfaction within the community. Following Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear's transition to a new role and the appointment of CEO Dan Clancy, the company let go of 400 employees. Additionally, Amazon initiated another round of layoffs, amounting to 180 jobs, when it discontinued the Crown channel, Amazon's Twitch-related programming, and disbanded its Game Growth division, intended to assist gaming creators in self-promotion.

Twitch recently made headlines by announcing its intention to discontinue services in South Korea, one of the world's largest esports markets, citing "prohibitively expensive" network costs as the primary reason. In a blog post disclosing this closure, CEO Dan Clancy noted that the company had been operating at a "substantial loss" in the Korean market and saw "no viable path forward" for sustainable operations.