Global hardships in the tech space continue as the Netherlands-headquartered buying and selling platform OLX is planning to cut down 15 per cent of its staff numbers as part of its restructuring process. According to a report by the Financial Express (FE), nearly 1500 employees can be impacted due to the decision.
The development came one week after Dalal Street Asia reported that OLX is planning to downsize its operations in Indonesia and put the auto business on sale.
A spokesperson, who is aware of the development, told FE that the engineering and the operations team would be affected most. However, it is not clear how many Indian employees would lose their jobs because of the decision.
“We can confirm that OLX is reducing its global workforce by 15%, which impacts staff across all countries, business units and job functions,” the spokesperson told FE.
“OLX is taking necessary measures to reduce its cost structure in light of changing macroeconomic conditions. Regrettably, this means we are reducing the size of our workforce across the company. We are sorry to part ways with these valuable contributors, but doing so is necessary to meet our future ambitions. Ensuring that our employees are treated fairly and with dignity and respect is at the forefront of our attention at this time,” he added.
The Prosus-owned firm started its global operations in 2006 and entered the Indian market in 2009. Currently, it operates OLX and OLX Auto in India. Prosus has backed several Indian start-ups like Byju’s, Swiggy, Meesho, PharmEasy, Cashify, Mensa brands and others.
According to a Mint report, nearly 1,50,000 employees lost jobs in the global tech sector last year. Big techs like Twitter and Meta were seen to trim down their staff numbers to keep their business on the profitability track. This year also started with the news of Amazon laying off 18,000 staff. Later Google and Microsoft also announced layoffs amid the global downturn.