The surprising bad news at Dailyhunt and Josh
The announcement of layoffs and pay cuts by their well-funded parent is a sign that the new short-video business isn’t pulling its weight.
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Editor's note: Earlier this week, VerSe Innovation, which runs the news aggregation site Dailyhunt and short-form video app Josh, laid off 150 employees, accounting for about 5% of its workforce. At the same time, the company also implemented a pay cut of 11% for all employees with annual salaries of more than Rs 10 lakh. Despite the global macroeconomic concerns, this layoff announcement has surprised many within the company. Given that VerSe Innovation had raised $805 million in April 2022 at a valuation of $5 billion, there was an unofficial assurance that the company wouldn’t have to fire anyone. “It’s quite a shock,” says a person aware of the developments at VerSe. But there is more to this layoff announcement. VerSe Innovation is two parts: Dailyhunt, the core business where the company makes money from digital advertising, and Josh, which was only launched in September 2020 with a pitch that it would fill the vacuum (along with a dozen others) left by TikTok after it was banned by the Indian government. It seems that all 150 people who have been laid off …
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