Eli5: Why do companies like Snapchat, Uber, Google, etc. need thousands of engineers when they’re product is already made?

Question

I understand a good portion of them are there to work on new developments, but why does Snapchat need 5,000 software engineers for example? What do they do on a day-to-day basis? Why does Google need 27,000 software engineers when they’re website works fine as is and most of their products and apps have already been made?

In: 1

Answer 1

Maintaining existing software is often a tougher job than writing something from scratch. You require engineers to fix bugs and implement new features.