Etsy Slashes Almost a Quarter Of Its Staff In Attempt To Refocus (engadget.com)

Etsy, the online market for artisan and handmade goods, said on Wednesday that it will reduce its workforce by 15 per cent on top of another round of job cuts announced last month. From a report: CEO Josh Silverman announced this morning that Etsy was laying off 15 percent of its workforce. That's in addition to layoffs that were announced in early May; the total workforce reduction comes in at 22 percent, or about 230 employees. Silverman said the layoffs were part of an effort to focus on Etsy's "vital few initiatives," though he didn't specify exactly what parts of the company were being a drag. The only indication was that the company would focus on its "core marketplace."

Comments

Re:a quarter?

[ZiakII]

.... Read the rest

That's in addition to layoffs that were announced in early May; the total workforce reduction comes in at 22 percent, or about 230 employees.

Etsy is bad at marketing.

[ArhcAngel]

I haven't seen any marketing from Etsy. Not saying they don't market but whatever they are doing isn't reaching me. I forget about them but every time I visit I find something I want.

The problem is they lost their focus

[PortHaven]

They had a niche, hand made, one off product shop. Not the mass-produced stuff of ebay.

They should of focused on that. That made etsy unique. It was like a niche artist market. But they allowed the lines to blur. And there isn't room for two ebays.

Re:a quarter?

[tripleevenfall]

I'm putting some crocheted multiplication table placemats up on my Etsy store now. BONUS IF YOU BUY THE MATCHING COFFEE MUG

What do they all do?

[hackel]

How can a company like Etsy employ over 1000 people in the first place? What the heck do they all do? The site isn't *that* complicated. I would have expected a handful of developers, managers, etc. Definitely no more than 20. This is just bizarre. I guess it's good that they're downsizing if they want to survive.

Re:What do they all do?

[dunnomattic]

I recall talking to a recruiter once that wanted me to interview for a dev position there. I believe we discussed how they they license out their platform (store libraries, payment processing, etc.) to other SMBs as well as consume it in-house. If that is the case, then I could see them becoming flush with cash on initial takeoff and expanding quickly over a short span. When the hangover wears off and the first wave of licensees goes elsewhere, perhaps it looks like this?

Because they destroyed their community

[Leuf]

Etsy used to have a good community of sellers in the forums that, at least sometimes, kept them from doing stupid things. Then in their run up to the IPO they destroyed it.

1) Banned lots of sellers from being able to post.
2) Redesigned the forums to bury any real discussion with useless crap.
3) Moved the link to the forums from the header to the footer.

It was a clear message about the way things were going to be. We are going to start doing things you aren't going to like and we don't want to hear about it.

sheer brutality

[Thud457]

why do they have to SLASH their staff, that's just barbaric. Couldn't they just fire, errr, terminate, uh, lay them off?

"Core Marketplace"

[Khyber]

You mean all the bulk resellers you let in who fucked over the people that made you what you are today?