- Sea Limited's (NYSE:SE) e-commerce arm Shopee laid off staff across multiple markets, DealStreetAsia reports.
- The layoffs to rationalize its e-commerce business encompassed several Southeast Asian markets, including Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- Shopee's payments arm ShopeePay and food delivery business ShopeeFood also faced cuts.
- The competitor of the Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) hosted a general meeting on June 13 to address the job cuts with Shopee employees.
- The curtail affected almost half of Shopee Thailand's payment and food delivery teams, the report added.
- The company emailed staff members to return home and await further notice of termination.
- Shopee has stopped hiring and retracted several job offers for regional roles.
- Sea Group's reported first-quarter 2022 revenue growth of 64.4% year-on-year to $2.9 billion. The gross profit jumped 81.3% Y/Y to $1.2 billion. Shopee saw a 71.3% Y/Y growth in orders to $1.9 billion, while gross merchandise value rose 38.7% Y/Y to $17.4 billion.
- However, Shopee continues to battle multiple macro headwinds, including rising inflation and interest rates, likely to affect the retail and consumption sectors.
- The report added that Shopee also appears to be facing setbacks on some of its ambitious overseas expansion plans, including in Europe and Latin America. Shopee, which has operations in Poland and Spain, decided to pull out of France after only five months as it failed to accomplish expectations.
- Price Action: SE shares traded higher by 0.61% at $71.05 in the premarket on the last check Tuesday.
