Mozilla, which is most popular for the Firefox web browser, is all set to downsize and also restructure its workforce. Having been adversely affected by the pandemic, the Company is now planning to focus on new products that will also generate better revenue. The entire operation of the Company in Taipei has been wound up. In addition to the laying off of 250 employees, Mozilla will be looking at moving around 60 employees across departments as part of the restructuring plan.
The Company has recently launched a new VPN, and feels that it is time to move on beyond Firefox and concentrate on new projects. It will be putting together new teams with expertise in design and UX, as well as machine learning. Instead of focussing more on creating developer tools, Mozilla is looking to improve user growth and offer ‘differentiated user experiences’.
Henceforth, Mozilla will be investing more resources on its privacy- and security-related products, particularly, Pocket, Hubs, VPN and Web Assembly offerings.
According to the Company, this restructuring and downsizing was necessary to better organise the Company and ensure the long-term sustainability of the business.
Not only had the market for Firefox started falling, but Mozilla’s endeavours to build bigger tools, such as Firefox OS had also failed. Therefore, the Company now wishes to shift its attention to building products that users would want to use on the already existing platforms.
