Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company, cut 13,000 jobs in the first half of the year.
According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 6th, Alibaba cut 13,616 jobs in the first half, including 9,000 in the second quarter.
As a result, the total number of employees at Alibaba at the end of the first half was 245,700. Compared to the beginning of this year, the number of employees was reduced by about 5% in the first half of the year.
Alibaba’s payroll cut was the first since March 2016, the SCMP said. Alibaba has been aggressively expanding its business and increasing the number of employees.
The cuts are a measure to cut costs amid the Chinese government’s regulatory pressure in the information technology (IT) sector and the slowdown in China’s economy, the SCMP explained. In addition, it is analyzed that the aftermath of the lockdown due to the re-spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has been reflected. It is also interpreted that the slowdown in consumer sentiment following the government’s ‘zero corona’ policy also played a part.
It is reported that Alibaba’s layoffs were mainly made in business areas such as online shopping mall ‘Taobao’ and collaboration tools ‘Ding Ding’ and ‘Alibaba Cloud’.
Alibaba’s net profit in the second quarter has halved to the level of the same period last year. Net profit for the second quarter fell 50% to 22.74 billion yuan.
Meanwhile, Alibaba, listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, is on the New York Stock Exchange preliminary withdrawal list. Alibaba made a primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 and a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019. On the 29th of last month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which had a conflict with China over the financial supervision of Chinese companies listed on the US stock market, added four Chinese companies, including Alibaba, to the preliminary list of delisting.
Oh Jung-min, reporter at Hankyung.com blooming@hankyung.com