News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Spotify lays off 200 employees, or about 2% of its workforce. Parent comment

Re:Spotify lays off 200 employees, or about 2% of its workforce by no_wizard on Monday June 05, 2023 @10:14AM (#36196464)
I think its the WhatsApp effect, they had all of 55 employees[0] and were bought for 19 Billion USD (cash & stock but still). Never mind that the product that is WhatsApp is fairly unique in how it can be engineered

[0]: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/whatsapps-55-employee...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Spotify lays off 200 employees, or about 2% of its workforce by CPLX on Monday June 05, 2023 @10:28AM (#36196625)
Yeah and also the simple literal fact that WhatsApp in fact ended up with tens of thousands of employees.

Those who find the last sentence counterintuitive should stop to note that if you use WhatsApp today you're interacting with a company with tens of thousands of employees.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Spotify lays off 200 employees, or about 2% of its workforce by toyg on Monday June 05, 2023 @10:40AM (#36196795)
And is whatsapp now dramatically better than it was at acquisition time...?

Maybe it's a bit better. Is it 10000x better, though? I used Whatsapp before and after, and I find it hard to believe.

(One thing it's definitely better at, though: anything you say will almost instantaneously turn into an ad on the next website you visit.)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Spotify lays off 200 employees, or about 2% of its workforce by CPLX on Monday June 05, 2023 @10:51AM (#36196976)
As a product or a company? Pretty sure the combined entity that now includes WhatsApp is drastically more successful from a financial standpoint that the predecessor standalone company that comprised WhatsApp and had 55 employees.
[ Parent | on HN ]