The new year of 2024 is not starting very well for a lot of people employed by Amazon. Today, Amazon-owned Twitch confirmed rumors from earlier this week that it will lay off "just over 500 people" from the game-centric streaming service. That represents about 35 percent of its workforce.
In a blog post announcing the layoffs, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said that the number of people employed by the company is simply too many for the current size of Twitch"s business. He stated:
Last year we paid out over $1 billion to streamers. So while the Twitch business remains strong, for some time now the organization has been sized based upon where we optimistically expect our business to be in 3 or more years, not where we’re at today.
Twitch already laid off 400 employees back in March 2023.
In addition, Amazon"s Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios divisions are getting hit with unspecified layoffs that will account for "several hundred" workers.
The Hollywood Reporter posted the internal memo that Mike Hopkins, who leads both divisions, wrote to his employees about the layoffs. He said that it has been looking at nearly every aspect of those businesses for the past year to find improvements:
As a result, we’ve identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact. As a result of these decisions, we will be eliminating several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization.
Amazon recently announced it will be showing ads in its Prime Video library of movies and TV shows starting on January 29 in the US and February 5 in the UK and Canada. Prime members can still get rid of those ads if they pay an additional $2.99 a month.