Indonesia’s Goto joins global tech cuts

Company is slashing 1,300 jobs to curtail expenses

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s largest Internet company Goto Group will cut 1,300 jobs as it seeks to curtail expenses and assuage investor concerns over mounting losses.

The cuts amount to about 12% of the workforce, the company said in a statement yesterday.

The ride-hailing, ecommerce and financial technology company will begin notifying affected employees right away.

Goto joins tech giants from Apple Inc to Meta Plaform Inc in trimming employees or slowing hiring as companies curtail ambitions and brace for tough times ahead.

Job cuts in the industry are nearing levels seen in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, as tech companies across the globe confront the effects of a deteriorating economic climate and a heightened investor focus on profitability.

Sea Ltd, South-east Asia’s largest tech company, cut about 7,000 jobs in the past six months, according to a source.

Formed through a merger of ride-hailing provider Gojek and ecommerce firm Tokopedia, the company went public in early

“The company must accelerate its progress towards becoming a truly sustainable and financially independent business.” Goto Group

2022 in one of the year’s biggest initial public offerings and its shares have lost almost 40% since.

Goto’s statement on the job cuts confirms an earlier Bloomberg News report.

The plan underscores an effort to trim operating expenses as the company prepares to unveil quarterly results on Nov 21.

In August, it reported its second-quarter adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation widened to 4.14 trillion rupiah (Us$264mil or Rm1.2bil) from a pro-forma loss of 3.9 trillion rupiah (Rm1.1bil) a year earlier.

“The company must accelerate its progress towards becoming a truly sustainable and financially independent business, centred on its core offerings of on-demand, ecommerce and financial technology services,” Goto said.

Goto and its publicly traded peers Sea and Grab Holdings Ltd – all of which are loss-making – have seen valuations drop as they navigate an economic slowdown, rising interest rates and accelerating inflation.

Goto executives have said they are trying to balance spending on growth with its effort to reach profitability. — Bloomberg