Snap Hits Reverse After Expansion Drive, Cutting 20% of Staff

This spring, with the digital advert market in turmoil, Snap was busy including workers and launching new initiatives, together with a digicam drone and a content material push for its “Originals” scripted movies with a sequence starring gymnast Simone Biles.

Now Snap is pulling again on its ambitions, saying on Wednesday plans to slash a fifth of its workforce as half of a strategic reorientation that underlines simply how sharply its fortunes have turned within the face of a sequence of challenges to its enterprise. The social-media firm mentioned it’s reining in funding on a spread of areas, abandoning initiatives together with its in-house “Originals” programming and—confirming an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal—grounding the drone venture.