Amazon announced Monday cutting 9,000 jobs after it had already cut 18,000 positions earlier this year.
The job cuts will affect units including advertising, human resources, the Amazon Web Services cloud platform and Twitch, a platform for creators known for streaming video games.
“This was a difficult decision, but we believe it is in the best interest of the company in the long run,” Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to employees. posted on company website.
Amazon shares fell about 2.6% Monday morning to $96.40 a share.
An Amazon representative said the reductions would not affect Culver City-based Amazon Studios, the company’s film and television business. In her memo, Jassy did not specify how many roles would be cut at Twitch, which has an office in San Francisco.
Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for $970 million as a way for the company to expand its gaming footprint and cultivate a relationship with the platform of more than 1 million stations, which included players, esports organizations, publishers, and other creators at the time.
Today, Twitch has around 2.58 million concurrent viewers and there have been challenges regarding its growth, according to Ray Wang, principal analyst at Palo Alto-based Constellation Research. Viewership decreased 6% in 2022 compared to 2021, Wang said.
It’s an area that other media companies have also had to deal with, where there was a surge in viewership during the early days of the pandemic as people hunkered down at home and sought out entertainment. Now there’s a challenge in trying to keep those audiences engaged.
“Things have been different after the pandemic,” Wang said in a text message.
Amazon’s announcement on Monday follows layoffs at other technology and media companies. In January, Spotify said it was reducing its employee base by 6%, and last week, Meta announced a second round of job cuts, laying off 10,000 employees and eliminating 5,000 open positions.
“We think this is Amazon ripping the band-aid off more layoffs as bloated cost structure takes center stage for (CEO Andy) Jassy in this softer macro,” said Daniel Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities. “It’s the right medicine at the right time for Amazon and Street wants to see these moves as Silicon Valley continues to cut costs.”
