Alibaba refutes claims regarding layoffs of 25,000 staff

Alibaba has refuted claims that it is about to fire 25,000 employees and reported the case to the police.  

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, a spokesperson from Alibaba Group said the rumour about the layoffs is false.

According to multiple Chinese reports such as Sina, Alibaba clarified in a statement on 19 November that “Rumours of layoffs are repeated one after another, but what is fake is fake.”

This isn’t the first time the Chinese eCommerce company has decided to debunk rumours about layoffs. Back in May, it announced plans to hire 15,000 people this year amid rumours circulating on Chinese social media that the company planned to cut its workforce by 20%. 

Don't miss: Alibaba quells retrenchment rumours with announcement to hire 15,000 people

In a post on Alibaba’s official Weibo account, Alibaba said that among the 15,000 new hires, more than 3,000 people will be newly graduated students. 

The company further said in the post "Talent movement is what all enterprises have been doing. In Alibaba, talents have been coming in and out, moving normally.” 

Since then, some bloggers who have shared or retweeted “major layoffs” rumours on social media have publicly apologised and clarified, urging other retweeting media to actively remove the fake news and foster a clean cyberspace.

The announcement to hire also came after news that Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing division of Alibaba is laying off about 1,000 workers amounting to 7% of its staff, according to people briefed on the matter as reported by South China Morning Post which is owned by Alibaba.

Don't miss: Alibaba splits into six units as part of new restructuring plan

Back in March, Alibaba has also split into six units as part of its restructuring plan, which will individually raise funds and explore initial public offerings, the biggest restructuring of the Chinese online commerce leader since its establishment more than two decades ago.

Alibaba said the restructuring would see itself splitting into six units including Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group.

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