Maya Robertson
ShareChat, an Indian social media company backed by Google and Twitter, has laid off 20% of its staff in order to reduce its costs amidst the global economic downturn, as reported by Reuters. The company also laid off 5% of its workforce, or more than 100 employees, in early December.
“There is a growing market consensus that the current global economic downturn would be a much more sustained one, and we thus have to, unfortunately, seek more cost savings by reducing our team size,” said Ankush Sachdeva, CEO of ShareChat, in an internal memo sent on Monday.
He added that those affected by the layoffs will be offered two weeks’ pay for each year they worked at the company, health insurance until the end of June, and that the employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) will continue to vest as they scheduled until the end of April.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson said the company “aggressively optimised costs across the board, including in marketing and infrastructure, among other cost heads and ramped up our monetisation efforts.”
“As capital becomes expensive, companies need to prioritise their bets and invest in the highest-impact projects only,” the spokesperson added. “We aim to sail through the uncertain global economic conditions over 2023 and 2024.“
Founded in 2015, the Bangalore, Karnataka-based platform currently has 180 million monthly active users. Its valuation rose up to $5 billion after raising approximately $300 million from Google, Times Group and Temasek Holdings in May last year.
Also Read: ShareChat Revenue and User Statistics
Back in February 2021, sources familiar with the matter told the TechCrunch that social media giant Twitter, now owned by Elon Musk, held discussions to acquire ShareChat to build a TikTok rival and grow its footprint in the Indian market, where ByteDance’s short video app was banned more than two and a half years ago. However, the companies ended the talks without reaching an agreement.
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