GoPro under pressure: Manufacturer cuts around a quarter of jobs
Declining revenues and rising operating costs are affecting GoPro. Around a quarter of jobs are to be cut as part of a restructuring.
GoPro has been struggling for a long time, and now a new wave of layoffs is following.
(Image: In Green/Shutterstock.com)
GoPro has announced a restructuring plan to cut costs and become profitable again. As part of the plan, 23 percent of the workforce will be laid off, which according to GoPro corresponds to about 145 out of 631 employees.
The staff reduction will be implemented in the second quarter of 2026 and should be largely completed by the end of 2026. The restructuring will incur one-time costs of 11.5 to 15 million US dollars, primarily for severance payments and social benefits. This is according to a report filed by GoPro with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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GoPro is struggling with both declining revenues and falling sales figures, as well as a weakening subscription business. In 2025, the company generated revenue of 652 million dollars, about 19 percent less than the previous year, while camera sales decreased by 20 percent year-on-year to around 2 million units. The number of subscribers at the end of the year was 2.36 million, about 7 percent below the previous year's value. Despite operating costs being reduced by 26 percent, GoPro recorded a loss of 93 million dollars last year, as shown in the latest financial report.
AI technology is intended to bring about the turnaround
In the analyst conference, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman pointed to "macroeconomic headwinds" in the consumer sector, including tariffs, rising storage costs, and supply bottlenecks, which are currently burdening the business. However, the company has been struggling for some time: GoPro already reduced its workforce by around 25 percent in 2024, as stated in the annual report.
This trend is likely due to growing competition and loss of market share to competitors such as DJI and Insta360, while the action camera market is also considered increasingly saturated. Drones with automatic tracking functions are also increasingly taking over classic areas of application for action cameras. GoPro itself attempted to enter this market with the Karma drone, but withdrew after technical problems and strong competitive pressure. Additional pressure could also come from smart glasses like the Oakley Meta in the future, which simplify first-person perspective recordings and thus compete with action cameras in individual use cases.
To counteract the downward trend, GoPro is relying on AI technology. Starting in the second quarter of 2026, GoPro plans to introduce a new generation of premium cameras with the image processor "GP3", a chip specifically developed for AI applications. According to GoPro, the chip is expected to significantly increase both image quality and processing power.
(kbe)
