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

Supporting old products can be a lot of work. There are bugs to fix, things to make more efficient, vulnerabilities to fix, etc. But a lot do these developers are working on new stuff. These might be new features for existing products or entirely new products altogether.