Twitch cuts staff by 35%: reasons and consequences

The streaming service Twitch, owned by the Internet giant Amazon, has announced a significant staff reduction of 35%, which is about 500 employees. It is reported by Bloomberg, referring to the statement of Twitch CEO Dan Clancy.

One of the key reasons for this step is the fact that the service's business remains unprofitable even nine years after its acquisition by Amazon. The reference to anonymous sources indicates serious concerns about the financial condition of Twitch and the departure of several senior officials from the company.

In recent years, Twitch has been actively developing its advertising business, but this has not saved it from losses. The maintenance of a large-scale website that supports 1.8 billion hours of online video content every month has proved to be extremely costly, according to the service's management.

According to the information, in 2023, Twitch has already made two large-scale rounds of layoffs, and the total number of people laid off exceeded 400 as part of the overall job cuts at Amazon.

Twitch's CEO also announced the termination of the service in South Korea in December 2023 due to "exorbitant" support costs, which were almost ten times higher than in other regions.

In the last months of 2023, several senior executives, including the chief product officer, chief customer officer, and chief content officer, also left the company.