- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian social media unicorn ShareChat has fired around 20 per cent of its workforce to slash costs amid global headwinds.
Mohalla Tech, which owns the video-sharing app, said the “difficult” decision was taken due to concerns over sustained economic downslide.
According to a Moneycontrol report, the company, which employs around 2,200 people, laid off hundreds who were serving in management roles.
SnapChat is the latest in a series of tech companies that have slashed jobs in recent times.
Giants in the field, such as Meta, Twitter and Amazon have also laid off thousands over the past few months, and several Indians who are working on visas such as H-1B were affected. Many of them may have to return home if they didn’t find another job within a given timeframe.
According to the Layoffs.fyi website, which tracks tech job cuts, more than 24,000 workers around the world have so far been laid off just in the first 18 days of 2023.
The website, which has been set up by Roger Lee, a US-based entrepreneur, sources the figures from media revelations.
In India, tech start-ups such as Unacademy, Moglix, upGrad, and LEAD have announced layoffs since January 1.
Several Indian unicorns are under pressure from investors to slash costs amid concerns over high valuations and global economic conditions.
Sharechat, which is India’s first homegrown social network, offers content in Indian languages. It is supported by tech firms such as Google and Temasek and had raised $300m (£246m) in fresh funding in 2022. It also counts among its investors, Twitter, Snap Inc and Tiger Global.
In December, the company shut down its online fantasy gaming platform Jeet11 and laid off almost 100 workers.
