Alibaba lays off nearly 10,000 employees to cut expenses amid poor sales

Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba has bid goodbye to nearly 10,000 employees in an effort to cut expenses amid sluggish sales and slowing economy in the country, the media reported on Saturday.

According to South China Morning Post, more than 9,241 employees left Hangzhou-based Alibaba during the June quarter, as the company trimmed its overall headcount to 245,700.

“That put the total decrease in employee numbers for Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, to 13,616 over the six months to June, marking the firm’s first drop in payroll size since March 2016,” the report noted.

Alibaba reported a 50 per cent drop in net income to 22.74 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) in the June quarter, down from 45.14 billion yuan in the same period last year.