40 workers were let go by the game streaming company Loco, which represents 36% of its 110 total staff members. According to the corporation, this choice was made with a reduced cost structure in mind. During a recent town hall, Loco’s founders, Anirudh Pandita, and Ashwin Suresh, revealed the layoffs, citing them as a component of the company’s restructuring plan despite their goal of expanding operations internationally.
According to the corporation, this choice was made with a reduced cost structure in mind.
“Our transaction-based Loco VIP program, which we just introduced, has been enthusiastically received. And while we were reevaluating our approach, we concluded that concentrating on transactions would be a sustainable framework. Our primary goals, such as monetization, should take the front stage. This resulted in employment losses for some. It isn’t dependent on performance. In our opinion, transaction programs are more successful than advertising since we have concentrated on the product’s value. We had to make the difficult choice. These folks have been around for a very long time. Anirudh Pandita, the founder of Loco, told Moneycontrol that “we had to make this decision for the benefit of the company.”
Pandita stated that the choice was made in order to guarantee the company’s long-term viability and well-being.
We will provide the individuals leaving us outplacement assistance, continuing health insurance, and financial help since we genuinely care about them. About forty members of our team will be impacted by the restructure, and we are still appreciative of their contributions to Loco’s journey.
Loco Faces Workforce Impact Amidst Growth
He said that the recent layoffs had affected the majority of teams. “Those in other support teams like marketing and technology who were supporting the engagement-led projects were most affected. This layoff also affected other teams and individuals in finance.
In addition, Suresh mentioned that Loco’s metrics have increased dramatically in the past two months as a result of the introduction of both its VIP program and the Sky Championship 5.0 esports series. He said that Loco has 800,000 DAUs and 6 million MAUs, with 3% of its MAU base coming from paid members of its VIP program. Hashed, an early-stage venture fund based in South Korea, led Loco’s Series A investment round last year, which brought in $42 million (INR 330 Cr). Other investors in the firm include Krafton and Lumikai.
Unlike the US, South Korea, and Japan, where live-streamed games are a common gaming experience, live-streamed games are still relatively new in India. Loco, an online gaming and esports media platform located in Mumbai, is comparable to Twitch in that it streams game footage.
Some workers reportedly claimed that the platform’s monthly active users (MAUs) and daily active users had decreased. According to Pandita, there are presently 8 lakh daily active users (DAUs) and around 60 lakh monthly active users (MAUs) on the network. The site had over six crore users, over one crore MAUs, and over 20-30 lakh DAUs earlier this month.
As of FY23, there were 568 million gamers in India, of which 25% were paying customers. A Lumikai study states that there has been a 17% year-over-year rise in the number of paying users. India continued to rank among the top nations in the world for mobile game downloads in FY23 with 15.4 billion downloads.
