Vevo was founded in 2009 and is a joint venture between record label giants Warner Music Group, Sony, and Universal. Vevo makes music video content available on YouTube and its platform and apps and claims an average 25 billion video views per month.
Just a few months after former CEO Erik Huggers stepped down, Vevo’s CTO, Alex Nunes, has decided to depart the music video network as well. In addition to this, Vevo has also announced an unspecified number of layoffs within its product and engineering divisions.
Nunes was at Vevo since 2015. He assumed his post after the company’s previous Product Chief, David Rice, left as part of a previous round of layoffs. Now that Nunes has himself said farewell to Vevo, the network is reportedly building a new product team that will be led by VP of Engineering, Andy Smith.
Earlier this year, Vevo told the Financial Times that its revenues grew from $500 million in 2016 to $650 million in 2017, helping it to break even that year, with the hope of a profitable 2018. However, speculation continues to surround the company’s plans regarding its distribution agreement with YouTube and other potential suitors – Facebook for example – in comparison to Vevo’s website and apps.
Vevo released the following statement regarding the issue:
“We can confirm there has been a reduction of personnel across the Product & Engineering teams at Vevo. This decision allows for greater focus to drive increased growth in the promotional and commercial value of videos. This will build on what was a very strong 2017 for us with growth in the scale and reach of the music video.”
A Vevo spokesperson told Variety, “This decision allows for greater focus to drive increased growth in the promotional and commercial value of videos.”