Chinese E-Grocer Dingdong Maicai Denies Laying Off 50% of Staff
Wang Hai
DATE:  Jan 13 2022
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Chinese E-Grocer Dingdong Maicai Denies Laying Off 50% of Staff Chinese E-Grocer Dingdong Maicai Denies Laying Off 50% of Staff

(Yicai Global) Jan. 13 -- China's Dingdong Maicai has rebutted a media report that claimed the online grocery platform has let up to 50 percent of its staff go.

The news is not true, the Shanghai-based fresh produce marketplace said to Yicai Global. Changes in job positions are normal adjustments of the company’s organizational resources and recruitment for some vacancies is ongoing, it added.

Chinese media outlets, including tech news outlet TechNode, reported recently that Dingdong has laid off from 20 to 50 percent of its employees in procurement, algorithm, technology, and other core departments. The online grocer was even reported to have sent some of its warehouse service staff on unpaid leave.

There are no compulsorily scheduled holidays with no pay for frontline employees, Dingdong said to Yicai Global. Such arrangements would be reasonably adjusted according to the work situation and the employee's willingness, it added.

Yibaimi Network Technology, the operator of Dingdong Maicai, went public on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2021. The firm was established in May 2017.

Dingdong is still unprofitable. The firm made CNY14.6 billion (USD2.3 billion) in revenue in the first three quarters of last year, according to public data. Its net loss was CNY5.3 billion (USD833.2 million) due to low user transactions and high warehousing and delivery costs.

In Shanghai, the platform’s business has broken even, Liang Changlin, founder and chief executive, said to Yicai Global last June. "Talking about profitability without mentioning the scale of business is not the business logic of the internet era," he added. The firm was planning to use its initial public offering proceeds to expand, as well as to invest in its technology and supply chain.

Dingdong's stock price [NYSE: DDL] was 0.8 percent down in pre-market trading after closing 4.9 percent down at USD11.32 yesterday.

Editor: Zhang Yushuo, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi

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Keywords:   Dingdong Maicai,job cuts