New Delhi: Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi joined the list of companies in laying off employees amid the ongoing economic meltdown after its revenues fell nearly 20 per cent in the June quarter (Q2).
The mobile company laid off 900 employees, according to the South China Morning Post. The layoffs affected nearly 3 per cent of Xiaomi's workforce, news agency ANI cited the local media report as informing.
There were 32,869 full-time employees till June 30, out of this 30,110 were based in China, primarily at its headquarters in Beijing, with others mostly based in India and Indonesia. The company’s research and development vertical department has 14,700 employees in the same period.
Xiaomi President On Challenges Posed By Global Inflation
Talking about the challenges during the quarter, Xiaomi president Wang Xiang said, "In this quarter, our industry faced many challenges, including rising global inflation, foreign exchange fluctuations (and) complex political environment."
"These challenges significantly impacted overall market demand and our financial results for the period," Xiang told analysts during a call on Saturday after the company reported its quarterly earnings on Friday.
Revenue from the smartphone segment declined 28.5 per cent, from 59.1 billion yuan in the second quarter last year to 42.3 billion yuan this year majorly on account of decreased sales of smartphones.
"In the second quarter of 2022, global macroeconomic turbulence and the resurgence of Covid-19 continued to impact overall market demand for smartphones," the company noted.
Earlier, Chinese conglomerate Tencent fired 5,500 employees, after posting a revenue of $19.8 billion in the June quarter, down 3 per cent which is the first decline since going public.
Several Big Tech companies, unicorns, and startups have laid off employees amid the global macro-economic conditions.
Globally smartphone industry shipments witnessed an 8.9 per cent year-over-year decline and a 7.7 per cent quarter-over-quarter decline. The Chinese industry shipments declined 10.1 per cent year-over-year and 10.9 per cent quarter-over-quarter, according to Canalys.