Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has stated the live-streaming platform is not profitable, just days after news broke on significant job cuts impacting around 500 employees.
The Amazon subsidiary is also pulling out of South Korea as financial pressures continue to mount against the embattled company. Last month, “prohibitively expensive” costs were cited as the reason for the departure from the Korean market, which is said to be ten times higher than operations in other countries.
Clancy has been frank about the situation facing Twitch, but as reported by GGRecon, he warned that things could get worse and offered a rationale on why the staff cuts were necessary.
“I’ll be blunt, we aren’t profitable at this point,” he said.
“So while [Twitch] still has enough resources, [we] won’t be able to do as much as [we] could have done before.”
Important mission ahead
Despite the size and scale of the resources enjoyed by its parent company, that is not enough to guarantee the future of Twitch. It is also not benefitting from its position as a market leader within live streaming, highlighting the challenges Clancy and his peers face to turn around its fortunes.
On losing 35% of the platform’s workforce, the CEO commented:
“In terms of making the decision, we need to ensure Twitch is the right size so we can be here for a long time.”
“We have a very important mission. It’s critical Twitch is not just here today, tomorrow, but 50 years, 100 years from now. Our job is to run Twitch in a manner to ensure its prosperity and that it can be here for the communities you’ve built.”
The stress fractures are showing, and Twitch is under pressure. That is clear, but the streaming giant should still be able to navigate these uncharted waters toward a calmer vista.
Rival platforms like Kick and Rumble will be watching on with interest, seeking to create more than a ripple in the sea.
