Snap to ‘sunset’ web3 team in company restructuring

Snapchat parent Snap Inc. appears to be shuttering its web3 team in light of a company-wide restructuring plan that calls for reducing overall staff by about 20%. 

One of the team’s founders, Jake Sheinman, tweeted on Aug. 31 that it was his last day at the company after almost four years. 

“As a result of the company restructure, decisions were made to sunset our web3 team,” Sheinman tweeted. “The same team that I co-founded last year with other pirates who believed in digital ownership and the role that [augmented reality] can play to support that.”

Snap did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Snap said it would start experimenting with a feature that would allow users to import NFTs into its platform to act as filters, the Financial Times reported in July. The company also worked with developers to incorporate augmented reality (AR) effects into the latest generation of its high-tech glasses, Spectacles. 

However, it appears Snapchat will continue to work on AR initiatives even after shuttering its web3 team. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel cited AR as one of the three key areas the company would continue to pursue.

“We are restructuring our business to increase focus on our three strategic priorities: community growth, revenue growth and augmented reality,” Spiegel said in an Aug. 31 letter to employees. “Projects that don’t directly contribute to these areas will be discontinued or receive substantially reduced investment.”

Snap said it would slow its hiring rate in July after its second-quarter results missed analyst estimates.

“Our forward-looking revenue visibility remains limited, and our current year-over-year [quarter-to-date] revenue growth of 8% is well below what we were expecting earlier this year,” Spiegel said in the Aug. 31 statement. 

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