Snap Inc to cut 20 per cent of staff, cancel projects in cost-cutting effort

Snap Inc said on Wednesday that it will lay off 20 per cent of all staff and shut down projects, including mobile games and novelties like a flying drone camera, as high inflation and a deteriorating economy continue to ravage the advertising industry.

The cuts will help the company save an estimated $500 million in costs annually, Snap said.

Shares of Snap rose nearly 10 per cent in morning trading, which reverberated across the sector. Shares of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc were up 5 per cent and Pinterest Inc rose 6 per cent.

The company said it will focus on improving sales and the number of Snapchat users.

Investors have viewed Snap as an early indicator for trends affecting other social media platforms, as Snap is usually first to report quarterly earnings or provide business updates.

Snap's warning in May that it would miss its revenue targets due to worsening economic conditions sparked a sell-off of social media stocks.

Shares of the Santa Monica, California-based Snap closed down 2.5 per cent at $10 on Tuesday after The Verge first reported Snap's plans for layoffs, and AdAge reported the departure of two top advertising executives.

Revenue growth so far in the third quarter is up by 8 per cent over the previous year, which is "well below what we were expecting," Chief Executive Evan Spiegel wrote in a memo to employees that was also released publicly on Wednesday.

If that growth rate holds, it would be the slowest revenue growth Snap has had since becoming a public company in 2017; a far cry from triple-digit growth rates it has recorded in previous quarters.

Two of Snap's top ad sales executives, Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman and Vice President of ad sales Peter Naylor, are leaving to join Netflix Inc and build the streaming service's ad business.

Gorman, a longtime advertising executive who previously worked at Amazon, was instrumental in building Snap's ad business, said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at research firm Insider Intelligence.

Gorman and Naylor's departures come after Snap reported a disappointing second quarter and it is facing more competition from TikTok, she said.

"Snap is clearly going through a tough time," Enberg said.

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