Alibaba Looks To Trim Work Force By Up To 20%

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA and Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY are looking to mass layoffs, Pandaily reports based on a local news outlet and Weibo Corp WB.

Alibaba's MMC business division's layoff could reach ~20%. Several business lines within Alibaba have finalized their initial layoff list.

The MMC business unit publicly released ~1,500 job positions in mid-April 2021. It underwent a leadership change in 2021 and looked to integrate "Hema Market" and "Taobao Grocery" into a new brand called "Taocaicai."

Also Read: Here's Why Jack Ma Led Alibaba Affiliate's IPO Got Postponed Indefinitely, DiDi Had To Postpone Its IPO After Jack Ma's Ant: Bloomberg

Alibaba looks to invest at least 20 billion yuan ($3.15 billion) in its community group buying business in 2021 as per 100ec.cn.

Tencent started layoffs within small business departments in September 2021. 

In December, leading domestic online video platform iQIYI Inc IQ accounted for layoffs up to 20%. Kuaishou Technology's KUASF short video sharing app Kuaishou underwent restructuring in some small business lines. 

In just two months after the Spring Festival of 2022, many internet enterprises, including Weibo, Xiaomi Corp XIACY XIACF, DiDi Global Inc DIDI, Zhihu Inc ZH, and Pinduoduo Inc PDD optimized their personnel and restructured their business lines.

Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 8.44% at $79.39 in the market session on the last check Monday.