Oyo to cut about 5,000 jobs in broad overhaul, highest reductions in China

Oyo Hotels plans to cut its global workforce by about 5,000 to 25,000 people, with the deepest reductions in China after business there crumbled in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The start-up, one of the largest in SoftBank’s portfolio, is reducing staff in China, the US, and its home country as it seeks to boost profitability. Oyo expanded rapidly after its founding in 2013 and reached a valuation of $10 billion, but investors have soured on money-losing businesses after WeWork’s meltdown and SoftBank has pushed portfolio companies to prioritise profitability.

“In our previous phase, we added a lot of properties to our platform and built the brand and mindshare,” said founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal in an interview. “Our first focus of 2020 is growth with profitability.”