Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group laid off a total of 9,241 employees from the total workforce of 245,700 amid a poor performance in the June quarter, reported South China Morning Post. The company has trimmed its payroll by 13,616 over the last six months, a first since March 2016.
Alibaba layoffs come when global tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon and more have either instituted hiring freezes or laid off thousands of employees in preparation for a lean economic cycle.
The layoffs were necessitated as the company tries to push up profitability through efficiency while also contending with increased regulatory pressure from Chinese authorities.
The group, established in 1999 by billionaire Jack Ma, has faced serious regulatory actions in the past couple of years, allegedly starting due to Ma's criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping.
Ma has been removed from most of his executive posts and the company's subsidiary Ant Group, which Ma also founded, called off its widely anticipated IPO, the world's largest at the time.
Repeated COVID-19 lockdowns in China have also resulted in poor consumption and a cooling economy, both factors adversely affecting Alibaba's e-commerce channels.
The company reported a 50 percent drop in net income year-on-year in its June quarter financials, while revenue remained flat for the same period. The group's cloud business has also been showing signs of stagnation. Alibaba Cloud reported a 10 percent slowdown in growth compared to strong double-digit growth posted in the previous two quarters.
The company also saw a massive executive reshuffle in December under CEO Daniel Zhang Yong. It hopes to gain strategic clarity and become more agile through restructuring.
