Twitter cutting 9% of workforce, drops Vine app

Twitter Inc. announced that it is cutting nine per cent of its workforce globally in a restructuring that it estimates will make it profitable next year. The social media company announced the reduction, estimated at more than 300 jobs, in a letter to shareholders regarding its third-quarter earnings Thursday. It said it will take a $10- to $20-million hit, which is “substantially” going to cover severance. “The restructuring, which focuses primarily on reorganizing our sales, partnerships and marketing efforts, is intended to create greater efficiency as we move toward our goal of driving toward” profitability in 2017, the company said in the letter. It added it will eliminate “investment in non-core areas.” The layoffs follow a similar round of reductions the company made last year, which claimed eight per cent of its workforce, or more than 300 employees. Third-quarter revenue was up eight per cent to $616 million, with advertising revenue totaling $545 million of that, a six per cent increase over the same period last year. Mobile users represented 83 per cent of total average monthly users, corresponding to 90 per cent of total advertising revenue. It said the increase was “largely driven by product improvements and organic growth, with marketing initiatives providing additional lift.” Twitter also said its live-streaming initiatives are “showing great promise,” with audience growth for its three most-recent Thursday Night National Football League games increasing more than 28 per cent to three million viewers, up from 2.3 million viewers for its first game. Also Thursday, Twitter-owned six-second video app Vine announced on Medium that it would be discontinuing “in the coming months.” In the meantime, it said it will keep the website online and users will still be able to interact with Vines. The app was founded in 2012 and was bought by Twitter later that year. It officially launched in early 2013.

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Twitter cutting 9% of workforce, drops Vine app

Brief | October 27, 2016

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