Cubicles, meeting rooms and the company cafeteria are a bit less crowded at Zwift headquarters in Long Beach, California after Zwift CEO Eric Min announced a restructuring of the online virtual training platform company he co-founded.

On Wednesday an internal email informed Zwift’s full staff of 700+ employees that a company-wide restructuring was underway, including terminating numerous employees – estimated to be about 150 or close to 20 percent.

In addition, the company will abandon development of hardware products just announced in 2021, including a Zwift branded bike and Zwift power wheel.

Trying to put a pleasant spin on a sour announcement, Min now plans to focus on software development and improving the user experience, “We are committed to increasing the development of the core Zwift game experience, increasing the speed of new feature releases, and making the platform more accessible than ever before.”

With an estimated 4 million users as of January 2022, after doubling their user base during the pandemic, Zwift is the world’s largest online virtual training and racing platform for amateur cyclists.

At the height of the pandemic, Zwift was valued north of $1 billion USD after raising more than $450 million via venture capital firm KKR.

Like many online virtual companies that saw valuations climb into the stratosphere – including Zoom, Fastly and Peloton, Zwift’s current valuation is now likely a fraction of what it was at the height of the pandemic, requiring the company to make difficult business decisions if they are to survive long term.

On the social media platform Reddit, user NovaPokeDad summed up many Zwift users reaction to CEO Min’s restructuring announcement, ”I hope they don’t fuck it up.”

Photos: Zwift/IA