In August, SoundCloud cut its workforce by 20 percent, citing “the challenging economic climate” for the layoffs. That’s a common refrain among companies that have been downsizing in recent years — with companies like Google, Meta, Amazon and many others framing layoffs as restructuring or layoffs. cost cutting measures. Today, SoundCloud said it would cut staff by an additional 8 percent, telling staff that the reduction was a “challenging but important decision to ensure the health of our business and get SoundCloud to a profit this year.” .”
That goal is also baked into the company’s latest round of layoffs, with cuts through 2022 positioned as putting SoundCloud on “a path to continued profitability.” This new “reduction in headcount” seems to be the next step in that plan, with sources telling Billboard that the company hopes to turn a profit in Q4. It was also reported that SoundCloud’s leadership said it was courting new investors.
Although SoundCloud’s layoffs follow the same dire pattern we’ve seen at various tech brands recently, the company has actually been slowly downsizing for a long time. In addition to last year’s cuts, the company reduced its workforce by 40 percent in 2017.
Check out Engadget’s look at the biggest tech releases of 2023 for more details.