Amazon's game streaming platform Twitch cuts 500 jobs

Amazon's streaming division Twitch has announced it cuts 500 jobs, reportedly a third of the company, as it struggles financially despite strong popularity among players.
"I wanted to send a quick 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 nearly $1 billion, has run into trouble recently and recently shut down operations in its core market of South Korea due to cost concerns.
The layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg, come as Twitch has experienced an exodus of top executives amid a sweeping cost-cutting campaign across Amazon's divisions.
They also came after previous rounds of layoffs at the streamer, which is widely used in the gaming community.
“I know many of you are wondering why this is happening. "Over the past year, we've worked to build a more sustainable business so Twitch will be here for the long term, and over the year we've cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient," Clancy wrote.
"Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still significantly larger than necessary given the size of our business," Clancy said.
Last year, Amazon began its biggest campaign of job cuts, which it says will reach 27,000 positions across the company.
As part of that wave, Amazon also announced it was laying off hundreds of people at its Prime Video division and at MGM Studios.
"This is a difficult decision to make and one that my leadership team and I do not take lightly," the company's head of entertainment Mike Hopkins wrote in an email to staff.