Why did Discord just lay off 17 percent of its employees? Here's everything you need to know
By Daniel Kim
CEO Jason Citron of Discord announced that the company is reducing employment by 17% to sharpen focus and improve the way the company works together to bring more agility to the organization.
Employees were informed of the cuts today during an all-hands meeting, and it will affect 170 individuals in different departments. Discord isn't in severe financial problems, despite not having turned a profit and currently attempting to resurrect user growth following a spike during the pandemic, according to Citron's statement to staff.
Cuts from industry titans like Google, Amazon, and Meta have already occurred this year. Gaming firms have reduced their workforces in particular; in the last week, Unity Software, a producer of videogame software, and Twitch, a popular streaming site owned by Amazon, both laid off employees.
Additionally, Google laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday in its hardware sector, voice-activated virtual assistant Google Assistant, and core engineering division. On Wednesday, hundreds of employees were let go by Amazon from its Twitch streaming service, Prime Video, and MGM Studios. This month, Xerox announced plans to lay off 15% of its 23,000 employees.
The layoffs indicate that the tech sector may face more difficulties this year, following the adverse economic climate and the decline in the digital advertising market that resulted in the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers in the previous year.
AdvertisementMr. Citron stated that Discord has grown five times its initial size since 2020 and that the layoffs were the result of overhiring and growing too quickly. Discord has taken on too many projects and worked less effectively on them as a result, he claimed. His justification echoed similar statements in the past from tech chief executives, like as Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Daniel Ek of Spotify, both of whom carried out layoffs during the past two years.
Discord provides three months of outplacement services, five months of salary, benefits continuation, and equity vesting of awards on February 1, 2024, to departing employees.
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