Brave Browser maker lays off 9% of its workforce
Brave Software, maker of Brave Browser and Brave Search, confirmed that it has laid off 9% of its workforce. Brave Software was founded in 2015. The private company has seen significant growth ever since it launched the first version of Brave Browser in 2016.
Brave Browser is a privacy-focused Chromium-based web browser. The company and its browser are not without criticism though. Especially the integration of Brave Rewards, an advertising system that rewards users for viewing advertisement with BAT, Basic Attention Token, currency has been the focus of criticism.
The system is entirely optional though and supporters of Brave Browser highlight the browser's privacy and security systems, which work out of the box in many cases.
A Brave spokesperson told Techcrunch that the layoffs were part of the company's cost management in a "challenging economic environment". Brave did not reveal the number of employees that it let go. The company's LinkedIn page lists 229 employees, but those are probably only those that are on LinkedIn and linked to the company. Taking the figure, it would mean that Brave Software let go at least 20 employees.
Brave Browser and Brave Search have seen considerable growth. Brave Software's Transparency Data Feed lists 63.86 million active users and 22.96 daily active users for the month of August 2023.
Three years ago, Brave claimed that it had 7 million daily active users and 20.5 million monthly active users.
The company has expanded its portfolio of products and revenue generating options. Besides Brave Browser and its BAT system, Brave Software has launched Brave Search. Brave Search is an independently run search engine, which the company introduced in 2021.
Brave Search is supported by what Brave Software calls privacy preserving ads. These ads or the search engine do not track users. Brave Software launched a search API as well, which offers access to the database starting at $3 per 1000 queries.
The most recent company product is LEO, an AI chat assistant that the company has integrated into Brave Browser. Leo is free to use, but Brave Software announced plans to introduce a paid tier in the future.
Brave Software is a private company and it is unclear how well it is doing because of that. It is not the only company that announced rounds off layoffs. Microsoft, Meta or Google have all laid off employees in the past two year period.
Now You: do you use Brave products?
“Brave Browser maker lays off 9% of its workforce”
Is the developer of the main adblocking list still employed by that ad company ?
clear indication that their cash position is deteriorating; with a headcount of over 200 supposedly working on ‘tech’ and practically no BAT left to liquidate -at a price near its March 2020 pandemic low and not too far from its all time low- not to mention the deteriorating ‘quality’ of the advertisers using their platform (any of you allowed adverts recently? :D)
aaaaand funded by venture capitalists expecting to make at least 10x within 7 years of their investment
what could possibly go wrong?
nothing will go wrong. all part of the plan because now they have enough users and good will to start the real business. hard part was a success now time to rake in some cash with the targeted and data until the real payday when they sell to microsoft. *because no one cares about your privacy. and quite frankly lot of people seem put it on some weird pedestal now more then ever.
Don’t worry, they’ll be ok. SBF will bail them out, although I thought they were supposed to be growing. Wasn’t Firepox and Firepox only, the one that was supposed to be having all problems?
Summon Iron_Man
Iron one, the Brotherhood summons you to save us from the first crisis!
Nope, don’t sue Brave; however, 9% reduction is like taking out the daily trash. Glad admins had the never to eliminate the malcontents [who will tell you how much they appreciated their jobs, how dedicated they were to the company; how willingly they played “team player,” etc.
Let us know when it’s 33% within a 90-day period.
That’s a crucial figure for companies and employers–gets into all sorts of litigious entanglements.
@Kalmly–yes, “comments” made the site an excellent informational tool which may or may not reflect Softonic’s desire to eliminate comments.
Agreed, don’t sue Brave as they try putting the user in a safer, more secure private web environment.
Why would you even suggest that?
Lawsuits should be more directed at the big blue chip techs for continued non-stop abuse of discreet and deceptive data harvesting.
Preaching to the choir here.
Yes, I see the big tech company layoffs everywhere. AI related? Why pay people if AI can do it? And it is able to do more and more.
I very much miss the days of this website’s comments being pertinent to articles. I learned as much from the “regulars” as from Martin and Ashwin.
Sad News. I rely on Brave and wish the company employees the best
Here in Germany, some corporate websites require visitors to use chromium-based browsers, which include Brave.
For example, although I have Pale Moon, Waterfox, and Firefox on my machine in addition to Brave, I can only access my AXA insurance account via Brave.
This was also the case with one of my banks, and in that situation, I decided to close the account.
I don’t want to use Chrome and have gone with Brave in its place.
If I had to use such a service I’d be constantly mailing and calling to get things done, saying “sorry, your site is not compatible with my browser, I don’t want to support Google by downloading their products, so I can’t use it”. Might get old quick but may also help send a message :)