Micro-blogging platform Twitter has reportedly decided to lay-off its employees in the Bengaluru office. According to multiple sources close to the development, Twitter India is in the process of laying off 80% of its employees based in Bengaluru.
A company spokesperson told Yourstory, “Engineering is a key part of our global company and we continue to focus our programmes and efforts on improving the core product experience for our users worldwide. As part of our normal business review, we have decided to stop the global engineering work at the Bengaluru development centre. We thank the impacted individuals for their valuable contributions and are doing as much as we can to provide them a respectful exit from our company.”
As per the spokesperson, only the global engineering workforce in Bengaluru is affected. And Twitter will continue to maintain a presence in Bengaluru with staff from other functions.
It was also stated that the company is hiring for other positions in their offices across India and around the world. Twitter India has offices in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
The spokesperson also claimed that only 50% of the employees will be impacted, as opposed to 80% reported by the publication earlier.
However, the response came with a list of recent positive developments at Twitter India to reinforce that the situation is calm.
Lately, a lot of startups have joined the firing squad. In May 2016, it was reported that Askmebazaar, a Gurgaon-based home and lifestyle products etailer reportedly fired over 250 employees. The step came in lieu of the company’s strategy to increase automation and thereby the productivity, as told by a company’s spokesperson. Another report by Business Standard, stated that over 650 employees from over 40 offices left Askme. Later that month, personal assistant platform Helpchat also fired close to 100 of its employees as it planned to shut down the chat-wing of the business.
Last month Bengaluru-based cab hailing startup, Ola shut down its TaxiForSure business and has laid off over 1,000 employees. Ola had acquired TaxiForSure last year in March for over $200 Mn.
Updated September 22, 12:30 p.m. :According to a response sent by a Twitter spokesperson, “These affected employees are less than 20 in overall numbers and they belong to the engineering centre in Bangalore and this is very minuscule in percentage terms compared to the overall twitter headcount which is approx. 3500+ globally.”
