Social-media firm, Snap, which is the parent company of Snapchat, is reducing its global workforce by 10 per cent. That means, about 500 employees will be laid off. This is part of the company’s efforts to encourage collaboration amongst its employees.
In September 2023, Snap had axed about 150 jobs in the augmented reality (AR) division. The year before that, in August 2022, Snapchat, the multimedia instant messaging app and service, had laid off some members of its team (20 per cent of the workforce) when Snap had reported losses of almost $10 billion and its shares dipped following the poor quarterly performance in July 2022.
The company has assured support to the impacted employees. In fact, as per a regulatory filing, Snap will end up spending $55 million to $75 million in this round of layoffs.
Snap is reportedly trying to reorganise the workforce and do away with hierarchies wherever possible, so that there is more and better collaboration amongst the employees, in person. The revenue of the social-media platform primarily relies on digital advertising.
As a positive corrective measure, the company has initiated a $500 million share buyback scheme.
It was only last week that Evan Spiegel, CEO, Snap, had to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, to testify in the issue of the adverse impact of the platform on impressionable young minds.
