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Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, Unity Each Lay Off Hundreds of Employees

Amazon Prime Layoffs

IndieWire reported on Wednesday that Amazon's Prime Video and MGM division are laying off "several hundred" employees. Employees affected in North and South America were notified on the same day, with employees in other regions notified by the end of the week.

The senior vice-president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios Mike Hopkins' email to the employees stated the companies are looking to "prioritize our investments for the long-term success of our business." He stated to IndieWire that the companies will focus their financials on programming, marketing, product, and initiatives that "move the needle" going forward.

Deadline reported on Friday that as part of the layoffs, Amazon Prime Video Southeast Asia is making cuts in its original productions team in Singapore. Prime Video's vice President in the Asia Pacific Gaurav Gandhi stated the company is "decreasing investments in South East Asia (SEA) and moving to a leaner local operating model to support the SEA territories." Now operating with a team of 25, the regional division will focus on licensing local and pan-regional content from South Korea, the Japanese anime industry, and India. Gandhi further stated there was "no change in our investment focus in our other APAC territories including Japan and India."

Amazon's Prime Video will start running advertisements for subscribers in the United States excluding Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Mariana Islands on January 29. It will begin running ads in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada on February 5. The company is offering an ad-free subscription tier for an additional US$2.99 per month on top of the base subscription fee. Amazon Prime Video will launch ads in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in 2024.

Twitch Layoffs

Amazon-owned livestreaming service Twitch stated on Wednesday in a blog post that Amazon is laying off 35% of Twitch's workforce, eliminating 500 jobs at the company. Bloomberg reported the layoffs are taking place due to "concerns over losses at Twitch and after several top executives left the company in the span of a few months." Twitch Chief Executive Officer Dan Clancy announced in December the company will cease operations in South Korea on February 27 due to "prohibitively expensive" operation costs. Amazon acquired the streaming website for US$970 million in cash in 2014.

Unity Layoffs

Unity Software revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on January 8 that it will lay off approximately 25% of its workforce, eliminating 1,800 jobs by the end of March. While primarily being an engine for video games, Unity has promoted animation studios Graphinica and Craftar's utilization of the engine in the anime industry. CEO Jim Whitehurst announced a "company reset" in November and the company's shares have increased 40% since then, according to Reuters. The layoffs will be the fourth found of layoffs since July 2022.

Sources: IndieWire (Tony Maglio), Deadline (Jesse Whitlock), SEC's website, Reuters (Anna Tong) via Slash Dot, Bloomberg (Cecilia D'Anastasio), Twitch via Slash Dot and Hachima Kikō