Twitter: New CEO Jack Dorsey cuts 8% of social media platform's workforce

Twitter is laying off up to 336 people, or around 8% of its total workforce, it announced on Tuesday (13 October). Newly confirmed permanent CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey announced the job cuts, saying he wants to streamline the organisation.

In a company-wide email titled "A more focused Twitter", Dorsey said: "We feel strongly that engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce. And the rest of the organisation will be streamlined in parallel.

"So we have made an extremely tough decision: we plan to part ways with up to 336 people from across the company. We are doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person. Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by providing generous exit packages and help finding a new job."

Rumours of a possible downsizing by Dorsey, who was the company's interim CEO for around four months, surfaced as soon as he was officially announced as permanent chief on 5 October.

Twitter's overall expenses have soared over the past few months but its monthly user numbers have been stuck around 316 million. The news that Instagram over took the iconic 140 character medium, with 400 million monthly active users, would have hurt as well.

With new social media popping up from Silicon Valley constantly, investors and advertisers are constantly looking for growing media and Twitter seems stuck when it comes to user numbers. Meanwhile, its share price has fallen by almost a fifth in the past three months.

"Thank you all for your trust and understanding here," Dorsey said in his email. "This isn't easy. But it is right. The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there."

It was earlier reported that Twitter's planned 100,000sq ft expansion of its San Francisco headquarters had been halted.