Daraz, Alibaba’s South Asian e-commerce giant, announces layoffs in memo

Daraz Group, Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform, has announced layoffs across the group to “adopt a more streamlined and agile structure”, it emerged on Tuesday.

Company’s acting Chief Executive Officer James Dong said on Tuesday in an internal memo to employees reviewed by Reuters.

“Reluctantly, we will bid farewell to many valued members of the Daraz family,” the memo to staff stated.

Hoever, the memo did not mention the number of people who are going to be affected by the recently announced layoff.

As reported, Daraz has declined to comment on the percentage or absolute number of employees impacted across its operations in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are the group’s biggest markets, former CEO Mikkelsen said last year.

Daraz was founded in 2012 in Pakistan as an online fashion retailer and was later acquired by Chinese internet giant Alibaba in 2018.

The business covers four key areas e-commerce, logistics, payment infrastructure and financial services. It has more than 30 million shoppers, 200,000 active sellers and over 100,000 brands, the company told Reuters.

Last year, Daraz said it employed 3,000 employees across its geographies, before the e-commerce marketplace cut its workforce by 11% due to difficult market conditions, the Ukraine crisis, supply chain disruptions, soaring inflation, higher taxes and fewer government subsidies, among other reasons.