Twitter on firing spree, dismisses over 90% staff in India

In the wake of its takeover by billionaire business magnate Elon Musk, Twitter has been undergoing extraordinary changes. One such development has stunned people, as the micro-blogging site fired over 90% of its employees in India during the weekend.

The development comes as part of Musk's strategy to reduce Twitter's costs globally but has depleted its product and engineering staff in a market with immense potential for growth.

In India, the company has just over 200 employees, while the massive cut has left just over a dozen of its staff at present, those aware of the matter have shared with Bloomberg while seeking anonymity.

India is known as one of the most potential-driven markets in the world for growth in the tech sector with several Big Tech firms including Twitter, Google, and Meta Platforms, relying on its immense potential to find new users online.  

However, these companies also encounter strict regulations in the country when it comes to the content on their platforms.

The product and engineering teams have been targeted in the recent job cuts for Twitter in India. One of the people, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the teams were working for the micro-blogging site on a global mandate.

Demotions were also done across its departments including corporate communications, marketing, and public policy, Bloomberg reported. In San Francisco, the company has scaled down its manpower by roughly half of the total headcount.

In India, the California-based Twitter offices are situated in New Delhi, Mumbai, and tech hub Bengaluru.

Globally, the company is left with just about 3,700 employees, as reported by Bloomberg. Those still employed by the company are being pushed by Musk to ship new features with several employees reportedly even sleeping in their offices to meet deadlines.