Indonesia’s biggest tech company GoTo is laying off 12% of its workforce as tech layoffs spread across the globe
Nickie Louise
Posted On November 21, 2022
Tech layoffs are spreading across the globe and no company looks completely immune from the ongoing global economic downturn. Tech companies, large and small, have laid off more than 100, 000 people so far this year.
Last week, retail giant Amazon announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees, the largest job cut in the history of the company. But the layoffs are not limited to just the United States.
On Friday, Indonesia’s biggest tech company GoTo Gojek Tokopedia announced Friday it was laying off 1,300 people, or around 12% of its total headcount. Goto Group is the unicorn tech startup formed last year as a result of a merger of ride-hailing-to-payments company Gojek and e-commerce giant Tokopedia.
GoTo Group said that “a reduction in staffing levels will sadly affect 1,300 people or approximately 12% of employees, across the GoTo group.”
Citing macroeconomic challenges, the company said: “By the end of the second quarter, approximately 800 billion [Indonesian rupiah] in structural cost savings had been achieved in areas such as technology, marketing and outsourcing.”
GoTo went public early this year to become Indonesia’s fourth most-valuable company at a $28B valuation. We covered Goto Group back in August after the tech giant jumped into the crypto space with an $8.5 million acquisition of local crypto exchange startup PT Kripto Maksima Koin.
“Considering the challenging global macroeconomic conditions which have a significant impact on businesses around the world, the company, like other prudent companies, is making adjustments to ensure it can navigate the uncertain road that lies ahead,” the statement said.
Founded in 2010 by Kevin Aluwi, Michaelangelo Moran, and Nadiem Makarim, Gojek is an app for ordering food, commuting, digital payments, shopping, hyper-local delivery, getting a massage, and two dozen services. It is Indonesia’s first and fastest-growing decacorn building an on-demand empire across Southeast Asia. The Gojek app was launched in 2015 in Indonesia and is now the largest consumer transactional technology group on a GTV-basis in Southeast Asia.
