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United States Businesses The Almighty Buck

Etsy Slashes Almost a Quarter Of Its Staff In Attempt To Refocus (engadget.com) 56

Etsy, the online market for artisan and handmade goods, said on Wednesday that it will reduce its workforce by 15 per cent on top of another round of job cuts announced last month. From a report: CEO Josh Silverman announced this morning that Etsy was laying off 15 percent of its workforce. That's in addition to layoffs that were announced in early May; the total workforce reduction comes in at 22 percent, or about 230 employees. Silverman said the layoffs were part of an effort to focus on Etsy's "vital few initiatives," though he didn't specify exactly what parts of the company were being a drag. The only indication was that the company would focus on its "core marketplace."
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Etsy Slashes Almost a Quarter Of Its Staff In Attempt To Refocus

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  • Since when is 15 almost 25?

    • by ZiakII ( 829432 )
      .... Read the rest

      That's in addition to layoffs that were announced in early May; the total workforce reduction comes in at 22 percent, or about 230 employees.
    • by sootman ( 158191 )

      Since "in addition to layoffs that were announced in early May; the total workforce reduction comes in at 22 percent."

      I know it's hard, but next time read the WHOLE summary before posting. Remember: post from the brain, not the spinal cord.

    • by Desler ( 1608317 )

      Do you have the attention span of a gnat? The very next sentence would have answered your question before you asked it looking stupid.

    • It's 15 on top of layoffs that has been previously announced adding up the total to 22. It's in the summary
  • Laying off artisans won't help.

    Laying off senior execs will.

  • by ArhcAngel ( 247594 ) on Wednesday June 21, 2017 @12:04PM (#54662213)
    I haven't seen any marketing from Etsy. Not saying they don't market but whatever they are doing isn't reaching me. I forget about them but every time I visit I find something I want.
  • 99% of the crap on their site is just that, crap.

    Etsy could die tomorrow and nobody would care.

  • What do they all do? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hackel ( 10452 ) on Wednesday June 21, 2017 @12:33PM (#54662537) Journal

    How can a company like Etsy employ over 1000 people in the first place? What the heck do they all do? The site isn't *that* complicated. I would have expected a handful of developers, managers, etc. Definitely no more than 20. This is just bizarre. I guess it's good that they're downsizing if they want to survive.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      I recall talking to a recruiter once that wanted me to interview for a dev position there. I believe we discussed how they they license out their platform (store libraries, payment processing, etc.) to other SMBs as well as consume it in-house. If that is the case, then I could see them becoming flush with cash on initial takeoff and expanding quickly over a short span. When the hangover wears off and the first wave of licensees goes elsewhere, perhaps it looks like this?

    • How does Uber employ 12,000 full timers? It's an app.

      Welcome to bloat.

    • If they only had 20 employees, nobody would buy them. They have to appear successful to attract that sweet, stupid buyout money.

      • by Cederic ( 9623 )

        I think Mojang demonstrated that you can get the sweet stupid buyout without excessive staff numbers.

        • There are always exceptions, but I maintain that the appearance of success is important when dealing with VCs. They aren't all the brightest bunch.

  • by Khyber ( 864651 ) <techkitsune@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 21, 2017 @02:20PM (#54663515) Homepage Journal

    You mean all the bulk resellers you let in who fucked over the people that made you what you are today?

  • Big companies selling their mass market products, doubling the price and trying to make it look like they are a small niche company is what killed them.
  • I only learned about Etsy through the old Regretsy site. People trying to pass off dresses bought from China as homemade, terrible Photoshop work, upcycling shit that should never be upcycled, and plenty of other stuff they classified as "whimsical fuckery". It was like Cake Wrecks, but for crafts.

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