Online used car dealer Renrenche said to cut 60 per cent of staff as China’s tech boom cools amid trade war
- Loss-making Didi – Renrenche’s major investor – underwent a large-scale restructuring of its own and has ‘optimised’ 2,000 jobs since the start of the year
Renrenche, the Chinese online second-hand car dealer backed by Tencent and ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, is undergoing major job cuts as the country’s once booming tech sector continues to be hit by a macro economic slowdown.
The lay-offs – the Beijing-based start-up’s second round of cuts this year – could see a reduction of up to 60 per cent of total staff, reported online news portal Sina.com, citing a dismissed employee who was told about the overall plan at a meeting with the human resources department.
A company spokesman denied that the job cuts would impact as many as 60 per cent of staff but declined to comment further. “The team optimisation is in line with our strategy upgrade and is normal,” the spokesman said on Monday.
The latest cuts come amid a major business shift by Renrenche after it unveiled a partnership scheme earlier this year. The move aimed to turn in-house salespeople and local staff into self-employed “business partners” with their own profit and loss account.
“Part of our team and personnel structure is in dire need of upgrade and adjustment,” company founder and chief executive Li Jian said in an internal letter issued earlier this month outlining the partnership scheme and plans for further “optimisation”.
“There’s a spreading tendency for slow decision-making, inefficiency, sloppiness and lack of discipline [within the company],” he said. “Therefore, we will revamp and reorganise the corporate structure to make respective adjustments.”