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Tech lay-offs spread to South Asia as Alibaba-owned Daraz cuts 11 per cent of workforce amid difficult market environment
- Job cuts at Pakistan-based e-commerce firm Daraz follow a workforce reduction of more than 15,000 at parent Alibaba in the first nine months of 2022
- The redundancies are line with a trend in the wider technology industry, where firms are slashing headcount amid concerns about an economic slowdown
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Coco Fengin Beijing
Alibaba Group Holding-owned Daraz Group, touted as the leading e-commerce platform in South Asia, said it will cut 11 per cent of the company’s workforce, as sweeping lay-offs in the technology sector spread to more markets.
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The job cuts at Pakistan-based Daraz, which was acquired by Alibaba from German firm Rocket Internet in 2018, follow a workforce reduction of more than 15,000 at its Chinese parent in the first nine months of 2022. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
“In the last 12 months, the market environment turned and became extremely difficult,” Daraz chief executive Bjarke Mikkelsen said in an open letter posted on the company’s website.
That gloomy scenario included “a war in Europe, huge supply chain disruptions, soaring inflation, increasing taxes and removal of essential government subsidies in our markets”, Mikkelsen said.
Daraz, which covers a geographic market with a population of more than 450 million that includes Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, has 3,310 employees, according to its website. That means its workforce reduction will affect about 360 people.
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