Some sources say Shopee is cutting many employees despite the recent improvement in business results. Both ShopeePay and ShopeeFood are also affected.
Nikkei Asian Review recently quoted DealStreetAsia as saying that Sea Group’s Shopee e-commerce business is streamlining personnel. In addition, the layoff process also affects some Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
In addition to Shopee, the ShopeePay payment segment and ShopeeFood food delivery are also facing a purge process. Earlier, Shopee held a meeting to resolve this issue.
The size of the cuts and the number of employees affected so far have not been announced.
Two industry sources said that half of Shopee Thailand’s payment and food delivery team are affected. In addition, some information also revealed company emails asking employees to return home and wait for notice of contract termination.
Another source said Shopee has stopped hiring. Recruitment for other positions has also been canceled.
While Sea Group’s business recorded an improvement in profitability, the majority of the group’s revenue continued to come from game company Garena.
According to Sea Group’s financial report for the first quarter of 2022, the company’s revenue increased 64.4% over the same period last year, reaching $2.9 billion. Gross profit increased 81.3% to $1.2 billion over the same period.
Although still at a loss, Shopee’s operation still has an improvement. In the first quarter, orders rose 71.3% year-on-year to $1.9 billion. Total value of goods increased 38.7% to 17.4 billion USD.
The gross profit margin of the e-commerce platform is still increasing every year. Transaction-based fee growth and ad income also generate higher margins than other value-added services.
However, Shopee still faces some macro difficulties including inflation and rising interest rates. These factors can overall weigh down the retail and consumer sectors.
Besides, Sea’s e-commerce segment also witnessed many failures in its plan to go to the international market. Most recently, Shopee had to withdraw from the French market after 5 months of failing to meet expectations.
@ Zing News
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Source: Vietnam Insider