Twitter cuts hundreds of jobs
October 13, 2015
Twitter announced on Tuesday that it was cutting 336 jobs, about 8 percent of the company's workforce of 4,100 people.
"The restructuring is part of an overall plan to organize around the company's top product priorities and drive efficiencies throughout the company," Twitter said in a regulatory filing, adding that it "intends to reinvest savings in its most important priorities to drive growth."
The move came two weeks after the San Francisco-based firm brought back one of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey, as permanent CEO in hopes that he would be able to resolve the messaging platform's problems.
Twitter has been facing a host of issues such as slowing user growth and a stream of financial losses. The company has been unable to turn a profit in its nine-year history.
Since Dorsey and his partners started the service, Twitter has lost nearly $2 billion (1.75 billion euros). Investors are now worried that the company's third-quarter results, scheduled for October 27, will be another disappointment.
Making it more accessible
Dorsey has acknowledged that Twitter is too confusing for many people to use, turning off new users at a time when other social services such as Snapchat and Facebook's WhatsApp have grown in popularity.
Dorsey therefore promised to make Twitter more accessible to the masses next year, and cutting jobs is expected to give the company more financial leeway while it designs new tools.
As part of its revival plan, Twitter last week unveiled a new feature called "Moments" that packages commentary, video and photos about major events that have captured people's attention. The work on Moments began while Dorsey's predecessor, Dick Costolo, was still Twitter's CEO.
sri/uhe (AP, AFP)