Vimeo is ringing in the new year with another round of layoffs, affecting 11% of its workforce. In an email to staff today, CEO Anjali Sud quoted an “uncertain economic environment” as the reason for the cut.
“This was a very difficult decision that affects us all deeply. It’s also the right thing to do to enable Vimeo to be a more focused and successful company… It allows us to both invest in our growth priorities and be sustainably profitable, while continuing to innovate to power from video to every business in the world,” Sud wrote. She added that affected employees were notified through individual emails and invited to meet with their team leader and a human resources representative.
Employees from the Sales and Research & Development departments made up the majority of the redundancies.
This is not the first round of layoffs for the video hosting platform, which is ending 6% of its staff in July 2022. Since the July layoffs, Vimeo has seen a “further deterioration in economic conditions, in the form of protracted geopolitical conflicts, rising interest rates and fears of a global recession,” Sud said. In November, the company reported its third quarter results, with a loss of approximately 100,000 subscribers from the last quarter and an operating loss of $22.9 million.
However, Sud is confident that Vimeo can make a comeback. “We are entering 2023 with a more focused strategy to simplify Vimeo, and ultimately our team size and composition should reflect that focus,” she wrote. “This reduction allows us to achieve our growth and profitability goals in a way that is much less dependent on the broader market, putting us in complete control of our destiny.”
In May last year, Vimeo went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Launched in 2004, Vimeo now claims more than 260 million users, including large businesses, small businesses, organizations, and content creators.
From December 2021Vimeo employed 1,219 full-time employees, according to its annual regulatory filing.
Vimeo joins the growing list of tech companies that have downsized in recent months, from Salesforce and Twitter to Meta, Amazon and more.
