eBay has become the latest tech giant to announce mass layoffs in the first months of 2024.
The online marketplace confirmed this week plans to cut its workforce by about 1,000 people, or about 9% of its full-time staff, to “better position eBay for long-term, sustainable growth.” Furthermore, we have seen that contracts within the replacement workforce are also set to be ‘reduced’.
In a memo to employees, Jamie Iannone, president and CEO of the California-based company, outlined its long-term strategy and said changes made over the past three years have “improved customer satisfaction and meaningfully enhanced company growth.” And confirmed. ”
But Iannone goes on to note that a more optimized workforce is needed to make decisions faster and be more “agile.”
Iannone also said eBay believes its current strategy is right, but recognizes external pressures facing the business, such as a difficult macroeconomic environment, before admitting that “overall headcount and costs are outpacing business growth.”
“To address this, we are implementing organizational changes that align and integrate specific teams to improve the end-to-end experience and better meet the needs of our customers around the world,” Iannone said.
Founded in 1995, eBay is now valued at more than $21 billion. The online auction site predicted fourth-quarter 2023 sales and profits would be below Wall Street estimates.
Increasing competition from the likes of Amazon and cuts in consumer spending in developed countries due to inflationary pressures have put pressure on eBay's profits.
Tough start to 2024 for tech giants
The tech industry continues to drastically reduce its workforce after 2023, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as the “year of efficiency.”
In the first few weeks of 2024 alone, the tech sector saw more than 13,000 jobs cut across 72 tech companies, according to Layoffs.fyi. This follows the layoffs of more than 260,000 people across more than 1,100 companies in the sector in 2023 and 165,000 in 2022.
Earlier this week, TikTok announced it was laying off 60 people from its U.S.-based workforce, while Google and Discord also announced large-scale layoffs in the first month of the year.
Featured Image: eBay