Science and Tech

Meta and SoundCloud announce new rounds of layoffs

Only in May, the technology sector has laid off more than 50,000 people and in the last three months the sum exceeded 100,000 affected employees, with Meta being one of the most affected companies, with 20,000 jobs eliminated in this period. The layoffs this week will affect 6,000 people, according to reports made public a few days ago.

Although the company did not give a position, it stressed that the measure is part of the “year of efficiency” presented by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose goal is to build a company with “better performance to enable our long-term vision.”

Last month, in the presentation of its quarterly report, the company said that its revenues increased by 3% and that despite the massive cuts they have made since last November, they continue to invest in the metaverse, through their Reality Labs unit. .

In the case of SoundCloud, the layoffs reached 8% of its staff. According to a memo that the CEO of the company, Eliah Seton, sent to his employees and was disseminated by TechCrunch, the objective of this round of layoffs is to reduce the number of employees to achieve profitability this year.

“This is a challenging but essential decision to ensure the health of our business and make SoundCloud profitable this year. By doing so, we are securing the future of the company for the millions of artists who trust us for their lives and self-expression,” Seton shared.

The executive also highlighted the importance of achieving profitability to maintain its mission to “influence culture, be the preeminent home for artists and fans, and lead what’s next in music.”

It is the first decision to impact Seton’s company since he took over as the new CEO, replacing Michael Weissman. In addition, it is part of a second round of layoffs, after the 20% cut that was announced last August.

For its part, SoundCloud has made various changes to its platform to attract the attention of more users. For example, it has partnered with labels like Warner and Merlin to bolster its fan-driven royalty program, which distributes ad and subscription revenue to artists listened to by users.

According to company data, it has 130 million users and hosts more than 320 million songs created by more than 40 million artists from around the world.

Another couple of recent changes that the platform has made to be more relevant among users and creators is the main user interface, which has a TikTok-like look with a vertical feed and was released recently. Likewise, it integrated a new tool for fans and artists to have greater communication.



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