Twitter fires over 200 employees in India, left with a dozen staff

New Delhi, Nov 07: Twitter has fired majority of its employees in India and is now left with only about a dozen staff in the country, Bloomberg reported citing sources.

According to the report, Twitter had over 200 employees in India. The company has now shown the door to majority of its workers from marketing, public policy and corporate communications teams, people familiar with the development told Bloomberg.

Ever since Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the new boss of Twitter, decided to acquire the company, he has been insisting on cutting down the cost by firing employees. Within a week after his takeover, he has shown the door to top executives and half of the company's 7,500 employees.

Another source informed that about 70 per cent of the job cuts in India were from the product and engineering team. However, the company has not responded to the reports of firing majority of its India staff.

It has to be seen how the company, which has two branches (New Delhi and Bengaluru), operates in India with about a dozen staff.

According to a report, India is 7 per cent of Twitter's global user base. However, it operates in multiple languages.

Amid massive layoffs at Twitter across the world, including in India, and the subsequent backlash, the microblogging site's new owner Elon Musk on Saturday justified the move, saying there was "no choice" when the company was losing millions of dollars daily.

The company posted a net loss of USD 270 million in the second quarter ended on June 30 and compared to a profit of USD 66 million in the same period a year ago.

"Regarding Twitter's reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day," Musk tweeted.

"Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required," he added.