Amazon, the parent company of Twitch, has announced that 9,000 employees are set to be laid off, including 400 employees working with the popular stream site. CEO Andy Jassy announced in his memo to Amazon employees that the cuts will not only affect Twitch, but also the AWS cloud unit, advertising, and PXT arm.
The most recent round of layoffs comes months after Amazon laid off 18,000 employees which affected Amazon stores and PXT. Jassy also hints that this most likely will not be the last round of layoffs, stating that as they continue to go through all their assessments of the company, more layoffs may come in the future.
For Twitch, this is the latest blow following the departure of longtime CEO Emmett Shear. With the continued growth of competing live streaming platforms, Twitch has also had to deal with a rise in toxic streams and viewers looking to broadcast types of content that break the terms of service. New anti-bullying mods and viewer ban lists have been added to help curb illicit behavior towards minors and reduce overall toxicity, but there is still much more to be done.
The layoffs affect Twitch’s AI team and customer support team the most. Laid off Twitch employees will continue to be paid through June 2023.
Image from: Twitch
