Amazon cuts hundreds of staff across video services

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More than 500 Twitch employees – a third of the streamer’s workforce – will be laid off.
Photo: 123rf

Amazon is to axe hundreds of staff across its subsidiaries Twitch, Prime Video and MGM studios.

More than 500 Twitch employees – a third of the streamer’s workforce – will be laid off, according to a note from chief executive Dan Clancy.

Amazon said several hundred employees at Prime Video and film studio MGM will also lose their jobs this week.

The tech giant laid off more than 27,000 staff members in 2023 despite bumper profits.

Twitch was initially set up for gamers to watch and share video gameplay online. It was bought by Amazon in 2014 for US$970m (NZ$1.56b).

In an email to employees, Clancy said he was taking the “painful step to reduce our headcount” to “build a more sustainable business”.

He added that the company paid out US$1bn (NZ$1.6b) to streamers in 2023, but had “conservative predictions of how we expect to grow in the future.”

Amazon made US$9.9b (NZ$15.9b) profit in July to September, according to its most recent earnings report. That was up from US$2.9b (NZ$4.6b) in the same period in 2022.

In an email sent to staff at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, senior vice president of the department Mike Hopkins wrote: “We’ve identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investments and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact.”

Hopkins added that it was a “difficult decision to make”.

The email indicated that job losses affect staff in the US and around the world.

Amazon bought the hundred-year-old MGM Studios for $8.45bn in 2021.

In December, it announced it would start putting adverts on Prime Video from 5 February 2024.

The reductions at Amazon are the latest in a long series of job cuts in the tech sector, which had expanded rapidly as people increasingly turned to digital services during the pandemic, before contracting as that enthusiasm waned.

According to US career consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the tech sector cut 168,032 jobs in 2023 – up 73 percent compared to 2022.

– This story was first published by BBC