Shopee is rumored to be doing mass layoffs for some of its employees in several Southeast Asian markets, including Thailand and Vietnam.
As quoted by us from Marketing Interactive, Tuesday (14/6/2022), it is reported that the affected employees are working in the Shopee Pay and Shopee Food divisions. However, it is not known how many employees will be laid off.
Shopee itself is a subsidiary of the Singapore-based Sea Group. The layoffs were reportedly carried out as a step to rationalize their e-commerce business. Employees affected by termination of employment will receive notification via email.
Shopee is one of the most popular e-commerce sites in Southeast Asia. Its employees are reported to number more than 20,000 people. Lately, however, they seem to have put the brakes on their expansion into new markets.
In India, Shopee decided to no longer operate in March. This follows the prohibition of the Free Fire game by the Indian government, where the game was developed by Garena and is still related to the Sea Group as Shopee's parent.
Not long ago, Shopee also exited the market in France on March 6. In its response to Bloomberg, Shopee said it would remain open-minded and disciplined in exploring new market potential.
They have evaluated the entry into the European market, including in Spain and Poland. So far, Southeast Asia is arguably its biggest business.
Recently, the competition in the e-commerce business is getting tougher and overall, several startups have taken efficiency measures by laying off employees. We are still trying to contact Shopee to confirm this.