In an effort to reduce costs in the face of slowing sales and the nation’s economy, Chinese digital company Alibaba has said farewell to roughly 10,000 staff, the media reported on Saturday.
In order to reduce its entire workforce to 245,700, Hangzhou-based Alibaba reportedly let go of more than 9,241 employees during the June quarter, according to South China Morning Post. 200 corporate workers will be laid off by Walmart amid rising inflation.
The South China Morning Post’s owner, Alibaba, had a total fall in staff counts of 13,616 during the course of the six months ending in June, according to the article. This was the company’s first decrease in payroll size since March 2016.
From 45.14 billion yuan in the same quarter last year to 22.74 billion yuan ($3.4 billion), Alibaba reported a 50% decline in net profits.
The report said that while Alibaba deals with ongoing regulatory pressure, sluggish spending, and a weakening economy in China, the world’s largest e-commerce market, “the decreased payroll underscores Alibaba’s renewed efforts to slash expenses and drive up efficiency.”
Alibaba’s chairman and CEO, Daniel Zhang Yong, announced that the business will hire close to 6,000 recent college grads this year. The billionaire Jack Ma was reportedly under pressure from government regulators to relinquish control of Ant Group last month, according to sources. The move is intended to be a part of the fintech giant’s effort to distance itself from subsidiary Alibaba Group Holding, which is the subject of intense government scrutiny, according to a Wall Street Journal story.
Chinese regulatory authorities have increased their pressure on local digital behemoths like Alibaba and Ant Group since last year in an effort to break up their monopoly in the internet industry. The report claims that Ma might give up influence by giving some of his voting rights to other Ant executives, such as Chief Executive Eric Jing.
Since separating Ant’s antecedent assets from Alibaba more than ten years ago, Ma has had control of the company. Alibaba, which was founded in 1999, underwent a significant restructuring when Ma appointed Daniel Zhang as CEO.
