The growth of the photo app Snapchat continues to decline – the operating company Snap is now reacting with job cuts. 20 percent of the more than 6,000 jobs at the company are to be cut, as CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel confirmed in a memo to employees published on Wednesday. The layoffs are part of a savings and restructuring program that is also intended to sacrifice further investments in innovation projects such as the Pixy flying mini-camera.
Spiegel explained that sales in the current quarter will remain significantly below their own expectations with growth of eight percent compared to the same period last year. In the previous quarter, Snap had already posted its weakest growth since its IPO a good five years ago, with a 13 percent increase in revenue. The company has a difficult time on the stock exchange – the share has fallen by almost 80 percent since the beginning of the year. However, the savings measures were well received by investors and caused the price to rise by around 15 percent. (dpa)