2023年1月13日

SmartNews, Tokyo-headquartered新聞聚合網站和應用價值20億美元的2021年,今天宣布其在美國和中國減少了40%的勞動力,或約120人,據知情人士透露,該公司的計劃。周四宣布的消息在一個全體會議出席了SmartNews今晚員工。公司證實了裁員TechCrunch說,“當前的經濟條件”是罪魁禍首。影響角色在美國和中國在工程,包括那些產品,和數據科學,我們理解。SmartNews員工在日本,與此同時,很快就會經曆一個“自願離職計劃,但他們沒有提供細節,需要什麼。被解雇的員工將提供標準的遣散費和福利。在會議上,員工被告知他們會得到一個電子郵件在15分鍾內如果他們那些被放開。SmartNews雇傭了近900人,包括其合同員工,三分之一的日本以外的工作。消息人士還告訴TechCrunch,該公司已決定關閉其在美國的辦事處為兩天,星期四和星期五,沒有提供理由,擔心員工的遠程流全體人員會議。“這不是你的錯,我很抱歉看到你離開,“說SmartNews首席執行官肯·鈴木時宣布。 After the announcement was made, the meeting quickly ended, leaving no time for Q&A, frustrating some staff. Founded in 2012 in Japan, the company arrived in the U.S. in 2014 and expanded its local news footprint in early 2020 to cover thousands of U.S. cities. It has relationships with more than 3,000 global publishing partners whose content is available through its service on the web and mobile devices. In its markets, the app grew to become a top news aggregator due to how it personalizes the reader’s experience using machine learning technology to pick which articles are displayed. In the U.S., it also differentiated itself from others with a “News From All Sides” feature, which allows users to access news from across a range of political perspectives. In addition, during high-profile events like the Covid-19 pandemic or U.S. elections, SmartNews would offer in-app dashboards that offered critical information at a glance. The company managed to attract investors, raising more than $400 million since its founding in 2012, despite hefty competition from built-in aggregators like Apple News and Google News, on iOS and Android. In its most recent funding round, a Series F, investors poured in $230 million into the business, valuing it as a “double unicorn” ($2 billion), the company’s press release stated. New investors included U.S.-based Princeville Capital and Woodline Partners, as well as JIC Venture Growth Investments, Green Co-Invest Investment, and Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office in Japan. Existing backers ACA Investments and SMBC Venture Capital also participated. The SmartNews app globally reached 30 million monthly active users with 20 million in Japan and 10 million in the United States, we understand. However, those numbers have been trending down in both markets by around 10-20%, a source said. Since January 2014, SmartNews reached nearly 81 million worldwide installs from across the App Store and Google Play, according to estimates from Sensor Tower. As of 2022, its biggest markets by downloads were Japan (58%) and the U.S. (38%), Sensor Tower said. SmartNews, unfortunately, was impacted by the same macroeconomic factors that have led to a number of tech industry layoffs in recent months, in addition to complications that arose from Apple’s implementation of App Tracking Transparency , or ATT. The iOS new privacy measure introduced in 2021 hurt companies whose business models relied on advertising, including Meta and Snap , while boosting Apple’s own ads business. The company could have gone public back in 2019, but leadership pressed for additional funding and a higher valuation. Now that opportunity could be slipping. Reached for comment, SmartNews confirmed the layoffs and offered the following statement: Unfortunately, we are not immune to the current economic conditions that have negatively affected so many businesses. In order to maintain the health of our company and to ensure future growth, we decided to conduct a reorganization that has impacted many of our incredible employees. This was a last resort decision for us, and we hope the severance packages and career transition management services offered to impacted employees will help in their search for a new role.