Amazon’s game streaming platform Twitch cuts 500 jobs

SAN FRANCISCO, United States  —Amazon’s gamer streaming unit Twitch on Wednesday announced that it was laying off 500 staff, reportedly one third of the company, as it struggles despite strong popularity among players.

“I wanted to send a short note to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our workforce today,” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a blog post.

Twitch, acquired by Amazon in 2014 for close to $1 billion, has hit headwinds of late and recently shut down its operations in major market South Korea due to cost issues.

READ: Twitch to shut down in South Korea due to high costs

The cuts, first reported by Bloomberg, came as the Twitch has suffered an exodus of top executives amid a massive cost-cutting campaign across Amazon units.

They also came after previous rounds of staff cuts at the streamer, which is widely used within the gaming community.

READ: Amazon lays off hundreds in its Alexa division as it plows resources into AI

“Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business,” Clancy said.

Amazon last year began its biggest ever job cutting campaign, which it said will reach 27,000 positions across the company.