Brave Software Confirms Layoffs amid Tough Economic Climate

Brave has been taking steps in recent months to bolster its revenue sources.

Brave Software, the maker of Brave Browser and Search, has confirmed that it has laid off around 9% of its employees. The company has not yet revealed how many staff it has released, but it has said the decision was driven by the tough economic climate. Brave has been taking steps in recent months to bolster its revenue sources, including releasing its own search API and introducing image, news, and video results as a part of its Search API. It has also been testing its own native AI assistant, Leo, which it plans to release for all users, with a premium tier for features such as higher rate limits and more conversation models.

 Brave’s revenue model is built around protecting privacy and anonymosity, with users paying directly for content and advertising that they want, and receiving rewards for seeing ads that they’ve pre-approved. Brave Search does not track or record users' data and does not use data from other search engines for rankings, creating a unique value proposition in the market. Despite the layoffs, the company continues to show strong growth prospects, with new privacy protection rules and potential anti-trust lawsuits making its user privacy focus increasingly key for consumers around the world. Brave launched an advertisement rewards program in 2019 which has seen it grow to over 40 million monthly active users.