In its recent earnings report, Udemy announced a “Strategic Business Update” that includes phrases like “reallocating resources” and “reducing organizational layers.”

These changes have two primary goals:

1. Achieve $25 million in annualized structural cost-savings
2. Focus on enterprise companies with more than 1,000 employees

Though not explicitly mentioned, the references to cost savings and reducing organizational layers are clear signs of impending layoffs.

In Udemy’s last round of layoffs in February 2023, the company estimated cost savings of $30–32 million annually, which I estimated to represent around 200 job cuts. This new round appears to be of similar scale, with some jobs likely to be moved to “lower-cost geographies.”

Despite this “favorable” announcement (from a stock market perspective), Udemy’s stock price dropped by approximately 20%, contributing to a 46% decline in 2024.

Its 2024 Q2 revenue of $194.4 million is less than its first quarter revenue, marking the first time the company has ever experienced a quarter-over-quarter revenue drop. The primary culprit was Udemy’s Consumer revenues, which fell to $73.8 million from $79.2 million in 2024 Q1. This segment is now approaching pre-pandemic levels.

While Udemy has struggled with consumer revenue growth, Coursera has faced challenges with business revenue growth. The reason behind this difference lies in their approaches: Content versus Credentials.

At the time of publishing, Udemy’s market was $1.11B.