Discord, the half-personal forum, half-voice chat application used by gamers, is set to lay off nearly 20 percent of its workers, according to a report from The Verge.
The lay-offs were announced today in an all-hands meeting, according to reporting from Alex Heath. The Verge’s report makes the issues clear: Discord expanded far too quickly in 2020 following a boom in tech companies during the pandemic. Now, as they’ve become inefficient and bloated, they’re downsizing.
Discord previously had layoffs in August 2023, but those were substantially smaller in scope. The 17 percent of employees figure is Discord’s largest mass layoff to date. Across the tech industry, companies that gamers are familiar with and use daily are being hit with layoffs. Twitch, the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform, is in the midst of mass layoffs as well. Game developers are no different: 2023 was brutal for the industry, and 2024 might be the same.
As for Discord, they’re looking to reinvent their company as they pursue profitability.
“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,” Discord CEO Jason Citron said in a memo obtained by The Verge.
“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 organization. This is what largely drove the decision to reduce the size of our workforce. While difficult, I am confident this will put us in the best position to continue building a strong and profitable business that delivers amazing products for our users and supports our mission for years to come,” Citron wrote.
