Google will cut 100 employees at its YouTube video platform on Wednesday, continuing gradual layoffs after eliminating more than a thousand jobs last week.
The tech giant notified workers on YouTube's creator management and operations teams that their positions had been eliminated, according to an email reviewed by The New York Times. YouTube, the world's most popular video service, employed 7,173 people as of Tuesday, a person with knowledge of the total said.
“We have made the decision to eliminate some roles and say goodbye to some of our teammates,” YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe wrote in a note to the organization's employees. “Anyone in the Americas” and the Asia-Pacific region “who is or may be affected will be notified by the end of the day today,” the note said.
The layoffs, which were previously reported by the blog. tube filterThey primarily affect employee groups that provide support to YouTube's millions of content creators, two people with knowledge of the cuts said.
YouTube has struggled to fully recover from an advertising slowdown last year and has had to deal with stiff competition from TikTok, the short video service popular with younger users.
Google has been looking for more than a year for ways to reduce costs and cut bureaucracy. Last Thursday, the company cut more than a thousand jobs from its core engineering division; its voice-operated product, Google Assistant; and some projects involving augmented reality, technology that combines the real world with a digital overlay.
“We are responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the important opportunities ahead,” Andrea Faville, YouTube's director of corporate communications, said in a statement. Several Google teams carried out layoffs and reorganizations in the second half of 2023, and “some teams continue to make these types of organizational changes, including some role eliminations globally.”
In a note to employees on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said they should expect to see cuts for the rest of the year, but not as large as those the company experienced last year.
The company reported it had more than 182,000 employees as of the end of September, a figure that skyrocketed from 119,000 in December 2019. A year ago, Google began the process of laying off about 6 percent of its workforce, or 12,000 people. .
Now, an employer that had become known for its comfortable amenities looks like many of its Silicon Valley peers.
Since the new year began, numerous technology companies have announced job reductions. Discord said last week it would lay off 17 percent of its staff, amounting to 170 people. Amazon laid off hundreds of workers from its streaming service Twitch, Prime Video and MGM Studios. Xerox said this month it would cut 15 percent of its 23,000-person staff, and video game software provider Unity Software said it would eliminate 25 percent of its workforce.
YouTube generates part of its revenue from ads that play before and during videos. But the platform's reliable growth was disrupted by an advertising slowdown that began in late 2022, when rising inflation and interest rates forced advertisers to cut their budgets. YouTube saw its revenue decline for several quarters, halting that decline in June. Even now, advertising sales have yet to surpass their previous growth rate.
The platform has focused on selling more subscriptions to YouTube TV, its alternative to cable programming, which is now available with the National Football League's Sunday Ticket, a package that gives weekly access to several games. YouTube has also said it has more than 80 million subscribers to its services that offer ad-free music streaming and video streaming.
YouTube employees who were laid off have 60 days to find new roles within the company before their layoffs officially take effect.
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