Amazon's Twitch to Cut 500 Employees, About 35% of Staff

Twitch, the livestreaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc., is reportedly planning a significant workforce reduction, amounting to around 35% of its staff or approximately 500 employees. This move, expected to be officially announced soon, follows a series of job cuts at Twitch amid concerns about financial losses and the departure of key executives.

The challenges faced by Twitch are attributed to the high costs of running a massive website that supports 1.8 billion hours of live video content monthly, despite leveraging Amazon's infrastructure. In December, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy revealed plans to cease operations in South Korea due to the "prohibitively expensive" nature of operating there.

Despite a focus on advertising in recent years, Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon nine years ago, remains unprofitable. The recent departure of several top executives, including the chief product officer, chief customer officer, chief content officer, and chief revenue officer, further underscores the company's internal challenges.

In an effort to address issues and connect with the gaming celebrities who contribute to Twitch's success, CEO Dan Clancy has been working to mend relations and address concerns raised by streamers. Despite these efforts, Twitch has struggled to reverse its financial losses, leading to multiple rounds of layoffs in the past year.

It's worth noting that Amazon itself has undergone significant corporate job cuts, including the largest in 2022, affecting 27,000 positions across the company. This trend continued in October with additional cuts in its music division, encompassing the audio streaming platform and digital storefront for songs.

Source: Bloomberg