Heaptalk, Jakarta — A shocking layoff announcement is still occurring around the technology startup ecosystem in Indonesia. Recently, a giant technology company PT Gojek Tokopedia Tbk (GoTo), also declared this complicated decision towards several employees. Around 1,300 people, or equal to 12% of its permanent employees in total, are affected by this layoff determination.
Responding to this matter, the CEO of GoTo Group, Andre Soelistyo, revealed the layoff execution is a part of the company’s strategic moves to expedite financial independence. He also stated to execute this complex effort aims to make the company continue to deliver a positive impact on its consumers and focus on goals that are still within the company’s control, specifically amid increasingly challenging global economic conditions.
The company parties also recognized the efficiency objective is an arduous resolution. As a result, this giant technology company would provide comprehensive support for the impacted employees, during this transition period, by obtaining a worthy compensation package following the laws and regulations in each country where GoTo operates.
Concurrently, an Indonesia-based education technology startup, Ruangguru, has also performed the layoff move with an undisclosed number of affected employees. As delivered by the Corporate Communication of Ruangguru, Gwendolyn Betsy, this resolve is taken as the dynamic of the social and economic situation during the pandemic has negatively affected the company’s operations.
As cited by dailysocial.id, two of Ruangguru’s Co-Founder, Belva Devara, and Iman Usman, conveyed, “In early of the pandemic, the Ruangguru service has experienced a significant demand, influencing a massive recruitment determination for the last two years. Moreover, the current global economic condition is worsening drastically, as perceived by high inflation and rising interest rates. This issue has also generated a negative impact on the technology startup community, including us, Ruangguru,”
The affected employees will receive severance pay, insurance extension, and last month’s salary paid in full. In addition, the company also allocates the recruiter team of Ruangguru to provide job hunt support, psychologist consultation, and career development class.
GoTo and Ruangguru’s next business strategy
Currently, the management team of this holding company, GoTo, claims to accelerate its profitability by focusing on its core services, consisting of on-demand, e-commerce, and financial technology (fintech) services.
The GoTo’s on-demand business segment is anticipated to continue to evolve, along with the high mobility of society in the post-pandemic, particularly in the Online Food Delivery (OFD) service. The company observed that this service acceleration had produced a significant result, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Besides, the company representative explained that this business strategy shifting from the subsidy-based business towards product differentiation had delivered an excellent outcome, demonstrated the growth of cross-platform usage, and granted the space for the company to sharpen its business focus in enhancing the loyal customers with a high-value monetization result.
Meanwhile, after this complex layoff decision, the ed-tech startup, Ruangguru, would also intensify its product innovation, aligned with the consumer necessities in the post-pandemic, one of which is presenting a hybrid learning model through the application usage service and offline-based learning room in the Ruangguru Learning Centers. As recorded by the company, this learning center has spread into more than 100 branches in several cities in Indonesia.
The layoff storm around the technology startups in Indonesia has also ensued for the last few months, including Shoppe, Xendit, Binar Academy, GrabKitchen, GoTo, and Ruangguru as the latest wave. As it is known, the startup founders have been forced to cut their dedicated team and rebuild their business efficiency, observing the gloomier macroeconomy condition worldwide.
