Sawt Falasteen - Snap confirms cutting 20 percent of staff

A hit with young internet users in its early days, Snapchat has remained a small player in the social networking space as competition from other apps, such as TikTok, has grown ever more intense.

"We must now face the consequences of our lower revenue growth and adapt to the market environment," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in a note to employees Wednesday announcing the decision "to reduce the size of our team by approximately 20 percent."

In July, the company reported that quarterly losses nearly tripled to $422 million amid conditions "more challenging" than expected.

Tech news website The Verge first reported the southern California-based company would be making the steep cuts to its approximately 6,400 staff.

Restructuring, Spiegel said, would focus on "three strategic priorities: community growth, revenue growth and augmented reality" with unrelated projects to "be discontinued or receive substantially reduced investment."

Snap said it would discontinue its Snap Originals show programming, third-party app integration known as Minis, its games, and its lightweight drone offering called Pixy.

It also said it was "winding down" its standalone geolocation app Zenly and music creation app Voisey, which it acquired through takeovers.

Like other social networks, Snap has taken a hit as advertisers have tightened their belts, as well as from new privacy changes by Apple that have bitten into firms' sales of costly but highly-targeted ads.

Snap also announced a new chief operating officer, Jerry Hunter, who is being promoted from senior vice president of engineering. Google executive Ronan Harris will become president of the company's Europe, Middle East and Africa division in October.

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST