China’s largest ride-hailing firm, Didi, plans to let go 15 percent of its employees, or about 2,000 people this year, sources told TechCrunch. The cut comes as the beleaguered transportation giant copes with a stricter regulatory environment that puts a squeeze on driver supply and backlash from two high-profile passenger murders last year.
Chief executive Cheng Wei made the announcement during an internal meeting Friday morning as he told management that Didi will scale back its non-core businesses and step up investments in key areas, including safety technology, product engineering, offline driver management and international operations.
The sources did not specify which of Didi’s business units are affected by the layoff but said Didi will add 2,500 new hires by the end of the year to work on company priorities, which will give the company a total headcount of about 13,000 staff around the world.
In addition, Didi will work to ramp up operational efficiency, an issue that Didi also addressed during a major re-organization in December. A Didi spokesperson declined to comment.
Earlier this week, Chinese tech news portal 36Kr reported that Didi lost $1.6 billion in 2018 and spent $1.67 billion on subsidies for drivers. According to an internal memo Cheng made in September, Didi lost 4 billion yuan ($590 million) in the first half of 2018 and the company had not been profitable for six years.
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China’s Didi reportedly lost a staggering $1.6 billion in 2018
