StumbleUpon may be taking its last breath

StumbleUpon has been around for years and was really popular in the early days of the modern Internet, but its popularity has since waned dramatically and the discovery engine is now struggling to stay alive. The company has started dismissing even more employees because it hasn’t been able to secure another round of funding. Only the most essential employees are staying with the company. 

StumbleUpon, the once-popular discovery engine that lets users “stumble” onto new web content, has hit another road bump. According to VentureBeat, the company is now downsizing even further following a number of layoffs issued in 2013. StumbleUpon is in the process of dismissing “dozens of employees” after failing to receive another round of funding. By the end of the week, the company’s workforce of nearly 100 employees will be culled to just 30, VentureBeat reports. Those in engineering and sales positions will be spared, VentureBeat said. The social media site has struggled to keep up with giants like Facebook and YouTube, particularly in regards to being attractive to advertisers. In 2012, StumbleUpon reported that it had 25 million registered users—but it hasn’t released new numbers since. “It’s been tough for StumbleUpon to compete,” a source familiar with the matter told VentureBeat. “It predates a lot of the social networks. It certainly had its heyday when they had their largest user base.”