Gojek is reportedly laying off nearly 9% of its workforce, i.e. 430 employees due to the rising challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The layoff plan will help the company prioritize on its core businesses of food delivery, transport, and payments. These three core services as well as the logistics and grocery segments observed high growth during the pandemic.
The technology company is also planning to shut down its GoLife division, which offers on-demand massage and cleaning services, on 27th July. Additionally, it will also close GoFood Festivals that feature GoFood merchants. Several impacted employees by the company’s coronavirus-related layoffs are GoFood Festivals and GoLife employees. These two services witnessed a significant business downturn and economic crisis due to COVID-19.
Benefits such as health insurance scheme extensions, enhanced severance payments, and outplacement support will be provided to the retrenched staff.
Gojek has recently entered several deals with other companies. For instance, it has reportedly raised funding from Paypal and Facebook at the beginning of June. In addition, its video-streaming service, GoPlay, raised its 1st independent funding worth approximately $15 million.
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak that impacted the global economy, the companyacquired a minor stake in Bluebird, a local taxi company, in February. The two companies entered this stake acquisition deal for $30 million. Additionally, it also has announced the acquisition of Moka, a point-of-sales startup, for nearly $100 million.
In the last week, its rival Grab had furloughed 360 employees, which was around 5% of its total strength due to the ongoing crisis. Similarly, Grab will be terminating a few non-core projects and functions. It plans to meet the increased delivery service demand by adapting to the payments, ride-hailing, and financial services.
Apart from Gojek, several other tech companies have reportedly laid off several of their employees, which include CXA, Hmlet, Zilingo, Oriente, Uber, Ola, LendoEFL, Oyo, and One Championship.
Source credit:
https://www.techinasia.com/gojek-layoffs