
Reddit is laying off 90 of its employees. This translates to 5% of the company’s 2,000 workers, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The news came after Fidelity cut Reddit’s valuation by 41%, and over a thousand subreddits announced a protest that will happen next week.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Huffman shared the announcement with the company staff. The job cuts will reportedly affect full-time employees. However, the report says the move is not limited to layoffs: Reddit is also changing its hiring plans, which dropped from 300 to 100 roles.
The decision comes as the company faces different issues that could significantly impact its business. This includes the protest of moderators and users next week due to the API pricing changes on Reddit, which could push different third-party apps to shut down. On the “incomplete and growing list” shared on the platform, hundreds (now over a thousand) of subreddits will reportedly join the move, with some having more than 30 million users. In the protest, subreddit participants will go dark, preventing users from sharing content for at least 48 hours. The Moderator Coordination (r/ModCoord) subreddit also released an open letter to Reddit, urging it to reconsider its decision.
The API changes, however, are not the only thing causing noise with Reddit now. Fidelity, Reddit’s biggest investor in its funding round in 2021, marked down Reddit valuation by 41% last week. The asset manager spent $28.2 million on Reddit shares, but the stake reportedly dropped to $16.6 million on April 28.