Layoffs coming at Snapchat after 'substantial' new hiring cuts

SAN FRANCISCO: Joining the league of Big Tech companies who have laid off employees, photo-sharing platform Snapchat is set to sack workers and is in early stages of planning layoffs.

According to a report in The Verge, the job cuts at Snap are coming after the company posted disastrous quarterly results (Q2) amid poor future forecast.

"It's currently unclear how many of Snap's more than 6,000 employees will be laid off, as managers across the company are still planning the full scope of the cuts for their teams," the report said late on Monday.

The company was yet to comment on the report.

Snap joins companies like Microsoft, Twitter, TikTok, Meta and Google who have either laid off employees or frozen new hirings amid the global economic downturn.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, suffered nearly $10 billion loss and its shares hit a new 52-week low over disappointing quarterly results last month.

The company reported a net loss of $422 million compared to $152 million in the prior year as it "substantially" reduced hiring.

"We face a number of very large and very sophisticated competitors (and) we're seeing the overall advertising pie grow at a slower rate amid the macro headwinds," CFO Derek Anderson had told investors.

In May, Snap announced to slow down hiring this year.

CEO Evan Spiegel told employees that the company plans to hire 500 people this year, versus 2,000 it hired over the past 12 months, after warning investors that its revenue wouldn't grow as fast as expected.

Like many tech companies, Snap continues to face rising inflation and interest rates, supply chain shortages and labour disruptions, platform policy changes, the impact of the war in Ukraine, and more.