Eventbrite cuts 45% of company’s employees due to COVID-19 crisis

The current pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 is affecting several sectors of the economy, mainly, events associated with the music industry. Unfortunately, festivals are being canceled or postponed increasing the risk of not happening the 2020 festival season. Also, some related companies have started to feel the impact of this situation too. This week Eventbrite a US-based event management and ticketing website announced through CEO Julia Hartz that there will be a 45% cut regarding company employees, including the dismissal of employees, a cut without a fixed amount of executive salaries and the closing of non-English-speaking offices opened around the world, as is the case in Brazil. With these measures, annual expenses are expected to decrease by up to $ 100 million. It is worth mentioning that despite the recent IPO attempt, the company lost around $ 212 million between 2016 and 2019.

After the confirmation of layoffs to Billboard, Eventbrite released the following statement:
“As a company whose mission is to bring the world together through live experiences, Eventbrite has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic, alongside the entire live events industry.
To ensure the long-term durability of our mission, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our global workforce by 45 percent. This is a harsh reality to face and we are saddened to see many of our team members depart the company. We are committed to taking care of impacted employees during this already difficult time and in addition to severance, we are providing extended health benefits and dedicated job replacement support.
This is a challenging time for communities all over the world and while we can’t predict when the pandemic will pass, we are committed to providing a strong platform to help creators rebuild their businesses and enable the return of live events when it’s once again safe to gather. ”

What remains for us is to monitor what the company’s next steps will be, since Eventbrite has been playing a great role in helping organizers and participants of electronic music events around the world, strengthening and increasingly professionalizing the scene.

Image Credit: alex bracken on Unsplash