Plex lays off 20% of its workforce

3 years ago by MonkCanatella to c/selfhosted

Plex, the free streaming app, laid off approximately 20% of its staff. The company reportedly blames a slowdown in the advertising market.

Plex, the free streaming app, laid off approximately 20% of its staff, TechCrunch has learned, which will affect all departments, including the Personal Media teams.

“This is by far the hardest decision we’ve had to make at Plex,” CEO Keith Valory said in a statement. “These are all wonderful people, great colleagues, and good friends. But we believe it is the right thing for the long-term health and stability of Plex.”

The streaming app gives users a single destination to upload and organize content (video, audio and photos) from their own server while also allowing them to stream it via mobile app, smart TV or desktop.

In recent years, however, Plex has invested in free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) and live TV offerings. The FAST market has become saturated as many companies have entered the space. Plus, the overall advertising industry has taken a hit, making it harder for companies to earn enough revenue.

Valory noted in his statement that the company was significantly impacted by the slowdown. “While we adjusted our business plan last year after the shift in equity markets to get us back on a path to profitability without having to cut personnel expenses, the downturn in the ad market in Q2 put significantly more pressure on our business and ultimately it became clear that we would need to take additional measures in order to maintain a confident path to profitability within the next 18 months,” he said.

He added that the company is still expected to see 30% growth this year.

According to a Slack message from Valory, obtained by The Verge, which first reported the layoffs, Valory noted that 37 employees would be impacted.

Additionally, it seems that Plex may have had another round of layoffs earlier this year. Five months ago, a former account executive posted on LinkedIn that they were “affected by company layoffs.”

As of January, the company had 175 employees, and its revenue was in the double-digit millions.

Updated 6/29/23 at 12:10 p.m. ET with a statement from CEO.

load all comments
IAccidentallyCame 15 points 3 years ago

Hopefully they leave the free features as is, and don't starting going down the road many other companies have to squeeze out profit.

path: 0 737121, hotness: undefined, score: 15, children: 16
TwistedTurtle 22 points 3 years ago

Agreed, but I have a feeling I'll be using Jellyfin in a few years.

path: 0 737121 737495, hotness: undefined, score: 22, children: 13
root 31 points 3 years ago

Join us; It's fantastic.

path: 0 737121 737495 737618, hotness: undefined, score: 31, children: 12
Kraven_the_Hunter 7 points 3 years ago

Hahaheheheh, aaahhhhh...

wipes eyes

Anyway, thanks for the morning chuckle.

path: 0 737121 738086, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0
ptz 1 point 3 years ago

If they're trying to appease shareholders, then I feel like the enshittification is just starting. I've got Emby Premiere (webhooks were paywalled and are quite useful) and like that I have an off-ramp to Jellyfin if they start heading down a similar path.

path: 0 737121 742927, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
selfhosted
selfhosted

@lemmy.world

login for more options
63103
6834
6313

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

  1. Be civil.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts are to be related to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

  7. Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.

  8. AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

go to feed...