LivingSocial cuts 200 jobs

LivingSocial, the D.C.-based deals platform, announced Wednesday that it is cutting 200 jobs. The layoffs will be made in the company’s U.S.-based operations and across all departments, according to CEO Gautam Thakar. However, the cuts will be more concentrated in the areas of sales and customer care.
The eight-year-old company has been suffering from a decline in the market for daily deal coupons in recent years. The layoffs are part of a broader strategy to pivot the business from a focus on time-sensitive deals to an identity as, as Thakar has repeatedly put it, an “experiences marketplace.”
To this end the company has launched two pilot programs — Restaurants Plus in Atlanta and FastBook in Austin. Restaurants Plus allows participants to register a credit or debit card with LivingSocial and get cash back every time they use that card at an approved restaurant. The program aims to be available in D.C. by the end of the year.
FastBook, meanwhile, is a tool for booking and confirming spa treatments.
When LivingSocial cut 400 jobs in November 2014, the rationale was very similar. And they’re not the only ones struggling — this is also an industry-wide trend. Groupon laid off 1,100 just last month.