Social platform Discord is laying off 17% of its workforce, around 170 staff members, due to a need to “sharpen [its] focus” and become more agile to endure tough economic circumstances. This latest round of layoffs was first reported by The Verge, which shared an internal memo from Discord CEO Jason Citron detailing an unsustainable pattern of growth at the company.
Per the memo, Discord “grew quickly” and as a result, the company “took on more projects and became less efficient in how [it] operated.” Per The Verge, Discord remains a healthy company, but it isn’t yet profitable.
Like many other gaming and tech companies – Unity and Twitch, most recently – Discord has now pulled the layoff ripcord, cutting employees in the hopes of increasing profitability, and ensuring future growth. While the company had already initiated a round of layoffs in August 2023, this second round is much larger and more significant.
Read: Twitch is laying off 500 employees, around 35% of staff
“Today we are making the unfortunate and difficult decision to reduce the size of Discord’s workforce by 17%,” Citron reportedly said in a company memo to staff. “This means we are saying goodbye to 170 of our talented colleagues. This is a decision we did not take lightly, but it is one that we have conviction in to better serve our users, our business and our mission over the long term.”
“We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020. As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated. Today, we are increasingly clear on the need to sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organisation. This is what largely drove the decision to reduce the size of our workforce.”
According to the memo, employees impacted by the layoffs were informed whether their jobs were impacted in an email this week, with management later setting out next steps amongst remaining staff members. Those laid off were offered five months of salary, plus an additional week for every full year at Discord, five months of benefit continuation, and a number of other inclusions to ensure they have a “sizeable runway as they transition into future employment.”
Our thoughts are with those impacted by the layoffs at Discord.
