As a result, the parent company of Snapchat said it will cut 20% of all staff, restructure its advertising sales unit and shut down projects including mobile games and novelties like a flying drone camera, in order to focus on improving sales and the number of Snapchat users. Snap had more than 5,600 employees at the end of last year.
Shares of Santa Monica, California-based Snap closed down 2.5% at $10 on Tuesday after The Verge first reported Snap's plans for layoffs, and AdAge reported the departure of two top advertising executives. 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 and build the streaming service's ad business.
Senior vice president of engineering Jerry Hunter will be promoted to chief operating officer and will be responsible for improving coordination between engineering, ad sales and product teams, Spiegel said.