The complicated life of Prut, between videos of young people and accounts that add nothing

After years of excessive growth, BrutThe media company that specializes in videos targeting young people between the ages of 15 and 35 on social networks, is trying to financially clean up. Although the management denies the word “rationalization”, this is the remark made by several workers in the pioneers of short videos in France. The startup, which has 35 employees, including 250 in France, has suffered several setbacks in the past year. If Brut manages to raise a third round of financing in June 2021, at around 63 million euros (after Io million in 2018 and 36 million in 2019), it’s time to look for immediate profitability. Guillaume Lacroix, co-founder of Brut, explained in 2016 that “access to capital is limited by the state of the markets,” along with three other former colleagues from Channel +And the Laurent Lucas, Roger Coast and Renault Le Van Kim (Director of production company Together Media and former producer of “The Grand Journal”). its target? Double turnover in 2022 and do the same in 2023 so we don’t depend on investors, says Lacroix, publishing director. With the launch of its streaming platform in April 2021, the media company was betting on the success of its video subscription, despite a competitive world already crowded with Americans. NetflixAnd the Amazon president or too Disney+. CLEAR Bassini, the deputy general manager responsible for the new activities of the startup, at that time hoped for “millions of subscribers in the long run”. But, eighteen months later, we are still far from the number: if the Brut administration refused to communicate about this, then according to our information, the number of subscribers will be only 80,000-10000. Gone are the movies and series, only the in-house productions will remain in a new mobile app – combining Brut videos and Brut.live for live news, especially with the reporter Remy Boyzen, and the platform Prot X – Which is slated to release in December, but has been slow to arrive. Businessman beauty ajawaFormer CEO of the instant messaging app fiber, joined Brut’s general management at the end of 2021 to review various projects. While the mid-sized portion of the company must be protected, the reallocation of resources has cut jobs, especially internationally, as the company now wants to produce more content from Paris. The office that opened in 2021 in Mexico to develop Spanish-speaking audiences closed in July.

At the same time, Brut America – which are not yet profitable, unlike the French and Indian entities – have experienced a sharp decline in their workforce: if there were still 42 employees in January, they are now 3 degrees according to management, and about 20 according to our sources. Especially since administrative errors occur in this delicate period. For example, American employees learned about the announcement of a wave of layoffs by spreading 80,000 to 100,000 subscribers to the broadcast platform Brut XAnd according to our information, far from the hoped-for “millions” at the time of launch in April 2021. For a message quoting the management team on Monday, July 11, the day before the official announcement. “This is very unfortunate,” Lacroix admitted. Four months later, a former reporter working for Brut America still resents him being fired overnight under the circumstances. On the night of my dismissal, my email address and access to messages slack It has been deactivated. It was really violent.” Le Monde. Clouds lacroix He claims to have “scrupulously complied with US labor law”.
(complete in Le Monde)

(Pictured is a logo Brut)

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