Long Beach, California-based Zwift, a massively multiplayer online cycling and running physical training program that enables users to interact, train and compete in a virtual world, has announced a restructuring of future operations and a major reduction in force.
The cancellation of its hardware-based smart bike and trainer program has impacted 150+ employees, mostly in the company's hardware division.
According to a company statement, “Given the current macroeconomic environment, we have decided to scale back our hardware offering, pausing plans to launch a smart bike. As a consequence, Zwift has implemented difficult, yet important changes to the organization of the business. We are grateful for the contributions of all those impacted and have done our very best to support them.”
According to a company spokesperson, “There’s sort of two things at play with that. We started to scale the business with anticipation of launching hardware and spinning those products up. But also, we planned for the additional revenue that would have been driven by the sale of that hardware, and that revenue isn’t going to be coming in now. So the decision has been made to right-size the business as the result of the loss of that projected revenue stream.”
“We didn’t think it was a wise move to launch a high-end trainer or a high-end smart bike at this time. There are products existing on the market that are readily available, and there are going to be fewer people looking to spend big money on high-end trainers, we don’t want to be fighting for that space. The intent [of their own hardware] was always to grow the market, not to go into hand-to-hand combat with those guys [hardware partners], and that’s not great for the industry.”
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?