San Francisco, January 10: Amazon-owned live game streaming platform Twitch is reportedly laying off 35 per cent of its workforce, about 500 employees, this week. Twitch laid off dozens of employees last year, and has shut down its service in South Korea due to "prohibitively expensive" costs.
According to a Bloomberg report, the fresh job cuts, "which could be announced as soon as Wednesday", come amid concerns over losses at Twitch. Earlier, when Twitch co-founder and CEO Emmett Shear paved the way for new CEO Dan Clancy, the company laid off 400 employees. Amazon cut another 180 jobs late last year when it shut down its Crown channel, the Amazon-run Twitch programming, and shut down its Game Growth group. Paytm Announces To Invest Rs 100 Crore in Gujarat’s GIFT City To Offer AI-Driven Cross-Border Remittance and Set Up New Development Centre for Innovation.
Last month, Twitch said it plans to shut down its South Korean service in February this year due to high network usage fees in the country. Clancy said the company "made the difficult decision to shut down the Twitch business in Korea on February 27, 2024." Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G, Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G, Redmi Note 13 5G Sale Today at 12PM: Check Prices and Other Details Here.
The cost to operate Twitch in South Korea was "prohibitively expensive" and the company spent significant effort, such as adjusting the video quality on the service, to reduce business costs. In November last year, the platform suspended its video-on-demand service in South Korea, seen as a protest against the country's controversial network usage fee.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 10, 2024 11:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).