NASDAQ-listed, San Francisco-based ride-hailing company Uber has been downsizing its global team amid mounting losses and investor attention. On Monday the company said it had laid off an additional 350 employees. This round of layoffs, which Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said will be the company’s last, is Uber’s third in less than three months, bringing the total number of employees cut to 1,185. The down sizing has trickled down to the Indian team as well. Estimates put Uber’s global employee workforce at close to 25,000.
An ET report, citing people aware of the matter, said that Uber India has laid off under 10% of its employees. These are expected to impact Uber’s businesses in India, including its online food-delivery vertical under UberEats.
It is to be noted that Uber has about 2,700 employees in India. On Monday, the company had emailed employees saying it would cull jobs of 350 people across the world and 70% of that will be in the United States and Canada.
According to reports, though India contributes only 2% of Uber’s revenues, the country has been a larger part of expenses.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is scheduled visit to India later this month. But his visit may not be directly be connected with the layoffs.
This is the third round of layoffs by Uber which went public earlier this year and has been on a drive to cut losses in the backdrop of a disappointing IPO.
The first job cuts took place in July when staff from the marketing and analytics team were let go. The next set took place in September, which did not affect India, though, a few product and technology positions were eliminated back then.
