More Layoffs Hit hi5

We’ve confirmed that hi5, the third largest social network in the world, is laying off employees today. hi5′s VP of Marketing, Mike Trigg, wouldn’t say how many employees were being let go but we’ve received multiple independent tips that the social network laid off 50% of its staff. Previous to this round of layoffs, hi5 employed around 100 people. Trigg said the layoffs were due to a “realignment of the company” and that it was also a cost-cutting measure. Obviously, revenues were not keeping up with costs.

The social network recently went through a previous round of layoffs last October, letting go 10 to 15% of its staff due to another “restructuring.” hi5 gets about 63 million monthly unique visits worldwide but only 3.7 million of those are from the U.S., according to ComScore’s February stats. The site boasts close to 80 million registered users but apparently many of these users are just not in markets that advertisers find particularly appealing.

Hi5 is the third largest social network in the world. Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide with 275.6 million unique visitors, with MySpace is coming in second with 125.8 million unique visitors. Orkut is No. 4 with 51.7 million.

We’ve added the layoffs to the TechCrunch layoff tracker.