Challenging economic conditions affect businesses of all sizes, resulting in job losses. Storytelling platform Wattpad announced on Tuesday that it has laid off 42 of its 267 employees – that’s almost 15% of its workforce. It provides at least 12 weeks of severance pay and six months of ongoing benefits for the departing employees. In addition, they are allowed to keep office-assigned devices such as laptops.
In a blog post, the company blamed the economic climate for the cost-cutting measures and said the layoff will affect all of its divisions.
“As you all know, the global economic reality has fundamentally changed over the past year – and like other companies, we are not immune. Despite our efforts over the past few months to mitigate the impact of the changing economic environment, today we have made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our workforce,” said the company’s interim president, KB Nam.
“This does not mean that these team members have not been an important part of our work. It is important to note that these decisions are in response to changing business realities and needs, and are in no way a reflection of individual contributions. Everyone at Wattpad has accomplished so much and made a positive impact on our business.”
Last year, the company named Naver Webtoon’s Nam interim president after Jeanne Lam decided to leave. In 2021, Wattpad became a part of South Korean company Naver after a $600 million acquisition.
Last June, the company introduced a new creators program that could pay writers up to $25,000. It also launched a new measurement metric called “Engaged Readers” for writers.