Alibaba's Lazada Reportedly Commences Layoffs Across Southeast Asia Amid Parent Company's Turbulent Year

Alibaba BABA owned e-commerce platform Lazada has initiated a new series of layoffs in its Southeast Asia operations, with Singapore being the most affected, according to CNBC.

What Happened: Lazada, a Singapore-based e-commerce giant owned by Alibaba, has started laying off employees across its Southeast Asian markets, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday. The layoffs are expected to affect employees at all levels, possibly numbering in the hundreds, with Singapore facing the largest impact.

While the layoffs are yet to be confirmed by Lazada, a spokesperson told CNBC, “We are making proactive adjustments to transform our workforce, to better position ourselves for a more agile, streamlined way of working to meet future business needs.”

All areas of the business, including commercial, retail, and marketing, will be impacted by the layoffs, with employees already receiving meeting invitations from the company. However, no details have been provided yet.

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Lazada, which operates in six Southeast Asian countries, has been facing fierce competition from regional rivals such as Shopee, owned by Sea Limited SE, and TikTok Shop, a subsidiary of the Chinese tech giant ByteDance.

Why It Matters: The layoffs at Lazada come amid a tumultuous year for its parent company, Alibaba Group. Alibaba has seen a 75% plunge in its share price since 2020, in addition to the cancellation of its cloud unit’s IPO. The company was also fined $2.8 billion in 2021 by the Chinese government for alleged monopolistic practices.

Alibaba’s cloud computing segment, whose IPO was retracted in November, was expected to capitalize on the growth of artificial intelligence. The cancellation of the IPO has caused Alibaba’s U.S. market value to fall below that of its e-commerce competitor, PDD Holdings Inc PDD.

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