Mozilla is scaling back its focus amid layoffs targeting 60 people, or about 8 per cent of its workforce, in an attempt to get back to what it’s good at – Firefox. That also means dropping some of its products, including its VPN, and its odd metaverse platform ‘Hubs’.
Bloomberg had the scoop earlier this week. In a statement made to the publication, Mozilla said “We’re scaling back investment in some product areas in order to focus on areas that we feel have the greatest chance of success.”
But an internal Mozilla memo supposedly viewed and published by Tech Crunch casts more light on what Mozilla intends to scale back.
On the chopping block, Mozilla’s social media platform (mozilla.social, which operates on the Mastodon framework) is being scaled back with a smaller team to continue support.
Additionally, investment in the company’s VPN, the company’s phone and email masking service Relay, and the company’s ‘online footprint scrubber’ are being dialled back. “We will maintain investment in products addressing customer needs in growing market segments,” the memo reads when discussing its privacy and security products.
Of all the projects Mozilla is scaling back, the most drastic changes are happening to the least surprising product – the company’s ‘Hubs’ metaverse platform.
“Hubs’ user and customer bases are not robust enough to justify continuing to dedicate resources against the headwinds of the unfavourable shift in demand. We will wind down the service and communicate a graceful exit plan to customers,” the memo reads.
The loss of jobs is always sad and it’s important to remember that there are real people behind the words and numbers, but the sales pitch Mozilla offered with Hubs, online 3D spaces where users could interact with each other for meetings and gatherings, was flawed from the start, just as many metaverse platforms are.
On the bright side for consumers, it seems like Mozilla is going to refocus on the product everybody loves from the company – Firefox, the last major internet browser that isn’t based on Google Chromium (excluding Safari). The company also supposedly claimed in the memo that it was working on AI integration for the browser.
Gizmodo Australia has reached out to Mozilla to confirm if aspects of the memo were true or not.
Image: Mozilla