Snap Plans To Lay Off 20% of Staff

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

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Snap Feels the Pain of a Disrupted Digital Ad Market

Snap Inc. plans to lay off about 20% of its 6,400-strong workforce, according to the company.

In May, CEO Evan Spiegel said the social media giant would slow hiring, and warned revenue growth would continue to stall. At the time, Spiegel blamed the app’s downturn on everything from the conflict in Ukraine to inflation and supply chain shortages.


Most of the cuts will affect Snap’s team working on games and mini-apps for Snapchat as well as the team running Zenly, a social-mapping app the company bought in 2017. The hardware division, which works on Snap’s augmented reality goggles and the now-defunct Pixy camera drone, is also expected to face steep cuts. The ad sales division is also “being restructured," and Snap will phase out its Yellow accelerator investment program.

In an investor letter published last month, Snap admitted “demand growth on our advertising platform has slowed significantly,” and noted “we have observed reduced marketing spending and lower bids.”

Snap Inc. In an investor in dot.LA.

The layoffs follow Snap’s second quarter earnings report, which saw daily active Snapchat users increase by 18% annually – but mostly outside the U.S., as it failed to hit expectations in North America, where daily users grew by only 4% in that time. Snapchat’s user base of roughly 347 million remains on par with rivals such as Twitter, but that hasn’t prevented Snap from its mounting losses. The social camera company missed earnings expectations, and posted a net loss of $422 million on revenues of $1.1 billion last quarter.

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LA Tech Week: Goldhirsh Foundation and the Positive Effects of Technology

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech Week: Goldhirsh Foundation and the Positive Effects of Technology
Photo taken by Decerry Donato

On Monday, Los Angeles-based philanthropic organization Goldhirsh Foundation hosted the Technology and Storytelling For Social Good panel at Creative Visions studio to kick off LA Tech week.

Tara Roth, president of the foundation, moderated the panel and gathered nonprofit and tech leaders including Paul Lanctot, web developer of The Debt Collective; Alexis Cabrera, executive director of 9 Dots; Sabra Williams, co-founder of Creative Acts; and Laura Gonzalez, senior program manager of Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).

Each of the panelists are grantees of Goldhirsh Foundation’s LA2050, an initiative launched in 2011 that is continuously trying to drive and track progress toward a shared vision for the future of Los Angeles. Goldhirsh’s vision is to make Los Angeles better for all and in order to achieve their goal, the foundation makes investments into organizations, creates partnerships and utilizes social capital through community events.

The panelists share how the work they are doing in each of their respective sectors uses technology to solve some of society's most pressing challenges and highlight the importance of tech literacy across every community.

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LA Tech Week Is Back! Here Are the Events We're Watching

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

LA Tech Week Is Back! Here Are the Events We're Watching
Evan Xie

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SUPERCHARGE LA: Access to Capital & Cocktails (LA TECH WEEK)

Are you excited for LA Tech Week's most anticipated event: SUPERCHARGE LA: Access to Capital & Cocktails? We can't wait to see you at 1212 Santa Monica on Wednesday, June 7th, from 6-10 p.m.

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