MySpace Reduces Staff by Nearly 30% | Hacker News Reader

MySpace Reduces Staff by Nearly 30%

news.morningstar.com

17 pointssanj19 comments

The most surprising thing about the MySpace layoffs is not that they fired 500 people but that they had 1500 people to start with. Facebook is bigger (worldwide) and significantly more complicated and has fewer people than they have, even after the layoffs.

I don't know how big Facebook is today, but I know last year they were aiming for 1000 employees by December. That's about the same size.

They are at about 850 right now, last I heard, and I assume they have slowed hiring a little given the economy, but I could be wrong.

Either way, it means that before the layoffs MySpace was 50% bigger than Facebook, which is pretty amazing.

Now for Facebook to do the same thing.

I don't see any reason to downvote this comment. I think it's fairly accepted that both Facebook and MySpace were hiring ahead of their growth. Neither site seems to currently need its entire staff, and could probably run at 50% staff capacity.

Doesn't every venture backed startup hire ahead of their growth? If Facebook only "ran" since 2005 the site would lack a lot of features.

This is not a good sign. They hire suits to take charge, kick out the founders, and now they are going to run it like a startup.

MySpace will never run like a startup, no matter its size.

Hi Jon,

I was responding to a quote in the article:

"Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product."

I took this to mean that they are trying to move to a start up environment.

From my experience, layoffs don't lead to innovation or an ability to center on users. They just reduce financial overhead and greatly impact short term morale.

Being centered around user and product is business. Just because startup is your favorite buzzword does not mean it's applicable. I believe that would be Jon's inarticulate point.

Granted layoffs themselves do not lead to innovation, but they get more visibility to people like us (not in the know) than the likely new hires (fresh ideas) that accompany them which may lead to innovation.

What I was trying to say was that MySpace has always run like a large faceless corporation, and that trying to move to run like a startup will not work because the precedent just doesn't exist.

Sure you can argue that "Tom" was the face of the corporation, but we all know that to be a ridiculous lie.

Hey man, Tom is my friend...

Just curious. Why the negatives?

This is a real shame. Hacker News is one of my favorite sites. I respect anyone's right to dock my comment.

But to dock a comment where I am interested in feedback is a real shame. It goes against the culture here.

I didn't downmod you either, but I think that in general people don't like comments about mod points. Although you weren't complaining, from the guidelines:

Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

Thanks for clarification. I stand corrected. I appreciate you adding the quote on Hacker News policy.

Hi Larry,

Very recently the tone has changed at HN. But that's ok. HN is great because occasionally we go through phases like this (sometimes too political, sometimes humorless, sometimes holier-than-thou, and so on) but it always bounces back. Hang in there. <puts on karma crash helmet>

I didn't downvote you, but your comment doesn't have much content. What makes you think they are going to run it like a startup? Why is that not a good sign?

Thanks very much for that feedback. I added additional details below my comment.

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