Competition From Tinder Causes Zoosk To Cut Third Of Staff

Zoosk has become the latest startup to make cuts to staff numbers, as it confirms plans to drop one third of its employees. 

The dating app, which was created by Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr back in 2007, is apparently struggling with increased competition in the mobile space.

Its growth has been largely stunted by the emergence of exciting apps like Tinder and Happn, who in the past few years have been the driving force for innovation in the mobile arena.

And despite securing $61m in funding from the likes of Bessemer Venture Partners, ATA and Crosslink, the app has now confirmed it will be losing another 40 members of its team.

In a statement given to TechCrunch, Zoosk CEO Kelly Steckelberg said:  

“In our continued mission to operate as a sustainable, profitable and innovative company, we’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our headcount. Regretfully, this move impacts many colleagues who have shared our vision and made valuable contributions to Zoosk.

This reduction will increase operating efficiencies and streamline responsibilities as we prepare to bring several innovative product announcements to market in 2016.  Our optimism for these developments that we expect to positively impact our growth does not diminish the reality of today’s news felt by our staff. 

 We are committed to treating the impacted colleagues with respect and support during this transition.”

This is not the first time Zoosk has cut its staff in an bid to keep the company going and make the business more streamlined.

Shortly after being appointed CEO in January 2015, the app’s former CFO  Steckelberg cut 15% of the company’s staff – 25 employees.

Following this decision, and by switching to a premium model, the company also announced profitability in Q1 last year.