The company announced the layoffs during a town hall meeting with employees on Wednesday, even as it plans to expand operations overseas. Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh, the founders, told employees that the layoffs are part of the firm’s restructuring strategy, said people aware of the matter.
Loco founders confirmed the matter. “As part of a recent strategic review, we have decided to focus on transaction-based monetisation and operate with a leaner cost structure. This decision has been taken to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of our company,” the founders said in a statement to ET.
Going forward, Loco will solely focus on core objectives like monetisation. “We’ve retained just enough people to pursue core functions. So now we won’t spend time pursuing non-core initiatives for the short term, like all kinds of experiments that we were previously doing,” said Suresh.
According to multiple Loco employees ET spoke to, the company’s daily active user (DAUs) base has seen a dip recently, its launch of the VIP programme is yet to generate noteworthy interest from users and the number of fake users or bots has been on the rise. For companies in gaming and social media, DAUs and monthly active users (MAUs) keep fluctuating.
Suresh, however, refuted any drop in Loco’s DAU. “Our metrics have grown significantly over the last two months thanks to the launch of our VIP programme as well as the Sky Championship 5.0 esports series,” he said.
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According to him, it has six million MAUs and 800,000 DAUs. Three percent of its MAU base constitutes the paying users from the VIP programme, he added.Loco is backed by investors like South Korean gaming giant Krafton and Indian gaming-focused venture firm Lumikai.
On November 15, ET reported that the company had begun testing its Arabic app in various West Asian countries. According to Pandita, the company plans to expand into Latin American countries next.
Although Loco has not officially announced its entry into West Asian markets, it has outlined strategies for promotions, talent acquisition and content creation.