Tag: Layoffs

Singapore – Global e-commerce giant Amazon has announced a new wave of layoffs: this time affecting 18,000 employees globally. Majority of the roles impacted will be under the company’s physical store Amazon Store, as well as from their people, experience, and technology (PXT) organisation.

In a public letter posted by Andy Jassy, CEO at Amazon, the new set of layoffs comes after they have worked in the past year to work with their teams and looking at their workforce levels, investments they want to make in the future, and prioritising what matters most to customers and the long-term health of their businesses.

“[We] are deeply aware that these role eliminations are difficult for people, and we don’t take these decisions lightly or underestimate how much they might affect the lives of those who are impacted,” Jassy said.

It should be recalled that Amazon laid off around 10,000 employees in November 2022, impacting corporate and technology roles. Moreover, it also announced that it will be freezing hiring for corporate roles in its retail business.

“We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted. However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me,” Jassy added.

Amazon’s newest update are part of a worrying trend of tech layoffs that started in 2022. Large-profile companies like Meta, Oracle, Netflix, Snap, Twitter, as well as regional companies like Carsome, Shopee, and Tencent have announced ‘sizable’ layoffs.

Seattle, Washington – Amazon has begun laying off employees in its devices group, following reports saying that the company plans to lay off 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles.

According to TechCrunch, the layoffs would represent 3% of its corporate employees, making it the company’s largest layoffs in its history. The company has already announced plans to freeze hiring for corporate roles in its retail business.

The report follows the recent shutting down of some services, products, warehouses, and even its roving delivery robots of the company, after its disappointing third-quarter earnings report in October, which caused shares to fall more than 13%, bringing their year-to-date stock decline to about 41%.

CNBC also obtained some documents stating, ‘voluntary severance’ was also offered to some employees in some divisions as the company seeks ways to reduce its headcount beyond the massive layoffs already underway. This is said to be the ‘first step’ in realigning Amazon’s businesses, implying that more layoffs may occur in the near future.

The company’s unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment was announced on their website. The company decided to consolidate some teams and programs, resulting in the elimination of some roles.

Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices & services at Amazon said, “It pains me to have to deliver this news as we know we will lose talented Amazonians from the devices and services org as a result. I am incredibly proud of the team we have built and to see even one valued team member leave is never an outcome any of us want.”

Limp added, “We notified impacted employees yesterday, and will continue to work closely with each individual to provide support, including assisting in finding new roles. While I know this news is tough to digest, I do want to emphasise that the devices & services organisation remains an important area of investment for Amazon, and we will continue to invent on behalf of our customers.”

Shares have plummeted and closed down about 2% following the reports of layoffs.

The report comes on the heels of layoffs at other big tech companies. Meta announced the layoff of over 13% of its workforce, or over 11,000 employees, and Twitter laid off roughly half of its workforce.

Shenzhen, China – China’s tech behemoth Tencent has announced a new wave of layoffs, affecting teams on its video streaming, gaming, and cloud businesses.

Sources told Reuters that it spread across three out of six of Tencent’s business divisions. They include platform and content (PCG); the gaming-focused interactive entertainment department (IEG), and the cloud and smart industries group (CSIG).

There is no exact figure how many Tencent employees were laid off.

Tencent previously announced a wave of job cuts in September this year, affecting around 5,000 people or 5% of the company’s workforce. Some of the companies under the conglomerate which underwent downsizing include gaming publication Fanbyte and short-video platform Xiaohongshu.

The firm has a stake in numerous social media platforms and gaming companies;including Riot Games, Epic Games, Roblox, Discord, Pocket Gems, amongst others.

Tencent’s latest update follows a massive wave of tech layoffs globally, including Meta, Salesforce, Shopee, Netflix, Snap, and Oracle.

Singapore – Leading e-commerce platform Shopee began another round of layoffs last Monday which affected some employees in Singapore, according to a report by The Straits Times. 

According to ST, sources shared that the latest layoff was subdued and not many people knew about it, but that there had been rumours of plans to let people go.

Shopee said in a statement to ST, “We continue to carefully review our business projects and priorities to ensure we are optimising operating efficiency, in line with our goal of achieving self-sufficiency.”

“We are also working to support our affected colleagues during this transition,” Shopee added.

Shopee is one of the tech giants that made mass layoffs this month, including Meta and Twitter.

Singapore – Global software company Salesforce has announced the layoff of hundreds of its employees, following plans to cut costs in their operations and harsh global economic conditions.

An initial report by Protocol noted that the company plans to lay off a large number of individuals, roughly 2,000 people or more, for ‘performance’ issues.

A spokesperson for Salesforce confirmed said news to CNBC, saying “Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition.”

Salesforce previously underwent retrenchment in August 2020, and then in January this year while they implemented a ‘hiring freeze’.

The new Salesforce employee cutbacks come after its investors are increasingly demanding a greater return, with the majority of this investment being poured into growing its business by acquiring businesses such as Slack and Tableau.

Big Tech has been struggling to cope up with losses lately, with other tech companies such as Meta, Oracle, Twitter, Snap and Netflix announcing massive layoffs as well.

Singapore – The massive layoffs by social media giant Twitter has finally reached the Asia-Pacific region, affecting a large chunk of employees across various teams, including communications, marketing, engineering, and sales.

A report from The Straits Times notes that while the number of laid-off employees are unknown, it is understood that employees who were laid off receive said notice on their private emails, while those who have kept their jobs received an email on their corporate one.

Internal email from Twitter states that the lay-offs were part of “an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path.”

Cipluk Carlita, who served as the head of communications for Twitter in Southeast Asia, was one of the people who bore the shocking corporate decision by the social media platform.

“While this is not how I would’ve wanted my journey to end, Twitter will always have a special place in my heart. It’s not just a place to work, but also to learn something new every single day and create lifelong friendships. Twitter is not a place. It’s the people,” she said on her LinkedIn.

The massive Twitter layoffs follow days after billionaire Elon Musk completed the social media giant’s acquisition. It should be noted that key C-Suite executives from Twitter’s global team have been fired, including CEO Parag Agarwal.

Musk’s takeover of Twitter has also caused a massive wave of advertising exodus, with large brands such as Mondelez, General Motors, and Pfizer announcing they have halted advertising on Twitter. In addition, advertising giant Interpublic Group (IPG) has also advised its clients to halt Twitter advertising for the meantime.

Despite Musk trying to appease advertisers to stay and initial reports saying that Twitter has approached several fired employees to come back, Musk’s Twitter takeover has had a rocky start, with rocky issues including the introduction of paid verification status, as well as lessened restrictions on controversial and far-right content.

Malaysia – Car e-commerce platform Carsome has started its workforce reduction across all operations in SEA. The move will impact a number of employees, who will receive their full severance package and extended health benefits until the end of the year, as per Carsome.

In a report made by Tech Wire Asia, Carsome stated that it will now be focusing on enhancing productivity by aligning resources with contributions to the bottom line and enforcing stricter performance management, which is part of employee base optimisation.

Moreover, the same report said that the layoffs follow Carsome’s announcement of its group-wide accelerated profitability plan to achieve its target of positive EBITDA within the next few quarters. 

In a statement, Carsome said, “This plan includes accelerating its integration with the newly-acquired iCar and WapCar ecosystem of companies, as well as employee base optimization, and automation of processes to further increase group efficiency.”

China – Regional e-commerce giant Shopee has reportedly cut more jobs, this time in the Chinese market, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.

The recent layoffs in China follows recent reported layoffs from Shopee in Singapore, Indonesia, and in Latin America.

According to SCMP, the layoffs are to optimise operating efficiency with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency across Shopee’s business. In addition, they will be extending support to their affected colleagues during this transition.

However, the report didn’t mention how much of Shopee China’s workforce are impacted.

It should be recalled that Shopee’s parent company Sea has also announced that it is shutting some of its projects and downsizing staff in Garena and Sea Labs.

Shopee is one of the latest tech companies to announce employee layoffs, including Netflix, Snap, Oracle, and Hootsuite.

Singapore – Tech conglomerate Sea, is reportedly shutting down several projects, as well as having staff number cuts, according to a report by Reuters.

Sources told Reuters that its gaming livestream business and its development arm Garena would be cut, as well as staff working at Booyah!, a gaming livestream and community app, would be let go and the app would no longer be updated.

In addition, Sea Labs, the tech conglomerate’s development arm, was shutting some of its biggest experimental projects and cutting staff, including blockchain and public cloud projects.

In a statement to Reuters, Sea said that they have made some changes to improve efficiency in their operations that impact a number of roles, as well as focusing on the long-term strength of their ecosystem.

Sea is the parent company of regional e-commerce giant Shopee.

Meanwhile, some of Garena’s popular developed games include League of Legends, Arena of Valor, Point Blank, FIFA Online 3, and Free Fire, which was banned in India, after government officials allege that data collected from Free Fire was sent back to servers in China.

Singapore – Global social media marketing firm Hootsuite will lay off a third of its workforce, TechCrunch first reported. The lay-offs are part of an ongoing layoff trend from giant companies such as Snap.

According to a statement to TechCrunch by CEO Tom Keiser, the layoffs are meant to refocus their strategies to drive efficiency, growth and financial sustainability. However, there were no specific statements regarding the number of layoffs, nor do the laid-off employees have been reported to receive any severance.

However, a report from The Globe and Mail suggests that the Canada-based company–currently having 1,400 people on board–will be laying off around 400 employees.

Hootsuite recently launched a rebranding campaign with its newest mascot called Owly. It has also raised around US$300m, with investors including Fidelity and Accel.

This was not the first time Hootsuite had made some lay-offs, as in 2019 it laid off around 10% of its employees amidst reports that it had failed to sell itself.