Snapchat’s parent company Snaps AR division locked, 170 employees dismissed

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New Delhi. Snapchat’s parent company Snap has fired about 170 employees from its Augmented Reality (AR) division and closed the unit.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in a note to employees that many things have changed since they first started pursuing their AR enterprise strategy.

Spiegel said, “We have made the difficult decision to close our AR enterprise business. “After exploring our options over the past few months it has become clear that expanding our enterprise offering to retailers would require significant investment and we cannot make that investment at this time.”

“Some members of the AR enterprise team will remain at Snap to support CameraKit, sponsored AR ads, and the more than 250 million people who engage with AR every day on Snapchat,” he informed employees late Wednesday. Approximately 170 team members will no longer work at Snap.

The Snap CEO acknowledged that the advent of generative AI has made it easier for companies of all sizes to create try-on experiences for their customers and “made it harder for us to differentiate our offering”.

“In addition, our business performance has diminished our ability to invest in this growth opportunity,” Spiegel said. We have had to focus our resources on our core advertising business.”

The company said that every effort will be made to support those team members who are leaving our business by providing them a package and outplacement.

Snap laid off 20 percent of its 6,400 workforce last year, or about 1,280 employees.

Snapchat’s parent company reported revenue of $1.07 billion during the second quarter this year, up from the previous quarter but down year-over-year.

The first quarter saw Snap’s first decline in revenue as a public company, with sales falling 7 percent compared to the previous year.
(IANS)

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