China’s ride-hailing leader Didi Chuxing seen overhauling its operations to enhance safety amid lay-off reports
- Didi declined to comment on report that it plans to lay off as much as 25 per cent of its workforce
Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing platform, has undertaken a “major overhaul” of its operations to enhance safety and efficiency as the company seeks to regain public confidence rocked by two passenger deaths last year.
The Bejing-based ride-hailing company is reorganizing its workforce to shore up safety and efficiency and is deploying more safety experts and driver-engagement specialists through new hiring and internal transfers, according to a person close to the company.
A project code-named “waterflow” is designed to enable employees to switch posts amid the restructuring, according to the person, who declined to be named because the information is private.
Didi declined to comment on a report by Chinese website 36kr that the company was planning to lay of as much as 25 per cent of its workforce. Another report by the Information on Wednesday said the number of positions at some departments could be cut by up to 20 per cent.
Job postings from Didi showed that the company was advertising positions in Australia and Latin America for functions including operations and strategy planning.
Rumours about tighter hiring practices in China’s tech sector have begun to swirl since the end of 2018. The National Develop and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, took the unusual step of dismissing the phenomenon of “massive lay-offs” among internet companies in a press conference earlier this month.