Snapchat’s parent company Snap is in the early stages of layoffs planning, according to two sources.
The Verge reports that Snap is in the early stages of planning its social media layoffs, according to two people familiar with the situation. The planned cuts came shortly after the company released disappointing earnings results and missed earnings forecasts for the third quarter.
Instant stock prices fell after the earnings report. It’s unclear how many of Snap’s more than 6,000 employees will be impacted by the layoffs, as company executives try to plan which teams to cut.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and his V for Victory (Kevin Dietsch/Getty)
Snap’s business has suffered in two main areas in recent years. Apple’s “Request app not to track” prompt in iOS 14 had a significant negative impact on Snap’s ability to effectively target ads to users.
Breitbart News wrote about Apple’s influence on Snapchat in October 2021:
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said: “Changes to iOS ad tracking, which Apple rolled out widely in June and July, have disrupted our advertising business. While we expected some disruption to business, the new measurement solution provided by Apple did not scale as we expected, which has resulted in has made it difficult for our advertising partners to measure and manage their iOS ad campaigns.”
The broader economic downturn also had a huge impact on the share prices of Snap and other cash-burning companies. Snap has only reported a quarter of its revenue since the company went public in 2017.
Snap last laid off employees in 2018, still reeling from the company’s poorly executed Snapchat redesign. Since then, the app’s user base has grown to 347 million daily users, surpassing other social media platforms like Twitter.
The company has struggled to build a profitable advertising business, and attempts to sell devices like the Snap Spectacle and a $230 selfie drone have failed. At the end of May, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees that the company would drastically cut hiring and “result in additional cost savings.”
Snap isn’t the only tech firm to give up on Twitter, TikTok, and many others that have announced layoffs and hiring freezes in recent months. Even Facebook has slowed hiring and warned employees of tough times.
Source: Breitbart
