Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that Chinese tech giants Tencent, Alibaba and Didi will slash jobs this year due to a slowing economy and regulatory pressure from Beijing. Some departments will lay off 20 percent of their workers. Thousands of employees will lose their jobs. Shenzhen-based Tencent plans to lay off 20 percent of its 20,000-person cloud and smart industry business group this year. As of September, last year, Tencent had about 107,000 employees. After Chinese regulators ordered the Didi app to be removed from the AppStore Beijing-based Didi will lay off 20 percent of its staff in some of its business groups, including its core ride-hailing service. Its app was banned from accepting new customers, and the app has so far not been reinstated as Didi failed to fully resolve concerns over how it handles data security. By the end of 2020, Didi had about 16,000 employees. Alibaba, headquartered in Hangzhou, is considering laying off about 20 percent of the workforce in some of its business groups related discounted shopping, grocery shopping, travel services and food delivery. These consumer-facing sectors are suffering the slowdown in China’s economy. As of September last year, Ali had about 259,000 employees. Stock shares of Chinese internet companies have tumbled over the past year. Alibaba’s share price has plunged nearly 60 percent in a year. Tencent’s has shrunk by about 40 percent, and Didi’s stock price has dropped to about $4 since it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in July last year at $14 per share.
Source: LTN, March 22, 2022
https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/3867177