Google axes 100 employees from YouTube, employees to brace for more layoffs

Google is now in the midst of another round of piecemeal layoffs, as they will lay off 100 employees under its video platform YouTube after axing more than 1,000 jobs in the past week.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, has also told employees to expect more job cuts this year, The Straits Times quoted from a prior news report by The Verge on Jan 17 earlier today (Jan 18), citing an internal memo.

“These role eliminations are not at the scale of last year’s reductions and will not touch every team,” Mr Pichai informed all employees in the memo, referring to Google cutting 12,000 jobs at the beginning of 2023, including 190 employees from the Singapore office.

Pichai added that the layoffs were focused on removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas, according to the report. This hints that more jobs will be axed this year as companies aim to automate their work processes by adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to lighten workloads.

According to an e-mail reviewed by The New York Times, the tech giant on Jan 17 notified workers from YouTube’s operations and creator management team members of their retrenchment. It was also reported that YouTube employed 7,173 people as of Tuesday (Jan 16), according to a person with knowledge of the total.

“We’ve made the decision to eliminate some roles and say goodbye to some of our teammates,” YouTube’s chief business officer, Ms Mary Ellen Coe, wrote in a note to employees. “Anyone in the Americas” and the Asia-Pacific region “who is or may be impacted will be notified by the end of the day today”, the note said.

Tough fight with TikTok and inflation leading to slow growth

The layoffs primarily affect groups of employees who support YouTube’s millions of content creators, two people with knowledge of the cuts said.

YouTube has struggled to recover from an advertising slowdown in the past year and has contended with strong competition from TikTok, the short-video service popular with younger users.

YouTube generates a portion of its income through advertisements featured before and during videos. However, the platform experienced a disruption in its consistent growth starting in late 2022 due to an advertising slowdown triggered by escalating inflation and interest rates, leading advertisers to cut down on their budgets. YouTube saw a decline in revenue over multiple quarters, with the downward trend halting in June. Presently, ad sales have not yet surpassed their previous rate of growth.

The platform has since shifted its focus towards increasing subscriptions for YouTube TV, its cable programming alternative. This service now includes the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket, providing weekly access to various games. Additionally, YouTube has reported having over 80 million subscribers for its music streaming and ad-free video streaming services.

More tech companies are conducting layoffs

As part of its efforts to cut costs and trim bureaucracy, the company has eliminated over 1,000 jobs from its core engineering division, its voice-operated product, Google Assistant. They have also conducted layoffs in their hardware division, where approximately 100 jobs were cut from the following brands: Pixel, Nest and Fitbit.

Google was one of many to conduct layoffs this year. Alibaba-owned Lazada recently received immense flak for their sudden layoffs just after the New Year celebrations, where 100 employees were retrenched from Singapore. Amazon, another e-commerce giant, was also reported to have axed 35 per cent of employees from their streaming platform Twitch, comprising 500 employees across various locations, including Singapore. 

Currently, YouTube employees who were laid off have 60 days to find new roles within the company before their dismissals officially take effect. According to a news article by The Business Times, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has also contacted Google to offer aid to employees affected in Singapore.

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