Update: Xiaomi has confirmed that 900 employees has been fired, and the new layoffs will impact 10% or 5000 employees. More details here.
Earlier..
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi Corp has joined numerous companies that are laying off their employees.
The company has reduced its headcount by as much as 15%, as confirmed in the South China Morning Post.
Xiaomi To Fire 15% Of Its Headcount
The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that China’s Xiaomi Corp. has begun to lay off employees in a number of its smartphone and internet services business units, reducing its workforce by about 15%.
The Hong Kong newspaper cited social media posts from affected workers and local Chinese media to claim that posts about the layoffs have deluged China’s social media platforms, including Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Maimai.
As per reports, Xiaomi had 35,314 employees as of September 30 with over 32,000 working in mainland China. The most recent decision could have an impact on thousands of employees, many of whom have only recently joined the company as a result of a hiring spree that started in December last year.
Xiaomi reported a 9.7% decline in third-quarter revenue in November, blaming COVID-19 restrictions in China and waning consumer demand. According to Xiaomi, sales of smartphones, which account for about 60% of its overall sales, decreased 11% from the previous year.
Xiaomi Shuts Down Mi Credit
Xiaomi India has stopped offering Mi Credit, the personal loan marketplace that it operated. Through this it lent customers between Rs 5,000 and Rs 100,000 at comparatively low-interest rates.
However, the app apparently accessed users’ texts and call logs to look for transaction information and other details in order to determine their creditworthiness and get the required loan approved quickly.
It is no longer on the Play Store, and the third-party service APKMirror lists the last update to the app as taking place in July. The company’s financial services overall have been wound down.
Meta, Twitter, Byju’s Firing Trends
As we reported earlier, Meta has fired more than 11,000 employees or 13% of the workforce. This time, cost-cutting is being utilized as a justification.
Other issues the corporation is dealing with include sluggish advertising markets, rising costs, and disappointing results. Since Facebook was established in 2004, these employment losses mark the first significant budget reduction.
Additionally, Twitter has let go of more than 90% of its Indian workforce. Only 20 people still work for Twitter India, which once had over 200 staff. The drastic personnel reduction shocks the entire world, not just the microblogging company’s position in a developing market like India.
Byju’s, a leader in edtech, is also accused of firing over 2,500 workers from all of its group companies.
In order to reduce costs in the face of growing losses, BYJU’s announced in a statement that it plans to fire around 2,500 employees across departments.
In June of this year, news outlets claimed that 2,500 full-time and contract workers from Toppr, WhiteHat Jr., and its core team in the sales and marketing, operations, content, and design teams will be let go by the leading provider of edtech.
