GoTo announces fresh round of layoffs across board

GoTo, one of Indonesia's biggest tech firms, will be going through a fresh round of layoffs, as confirmed to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE by a spokesperson from the company. 

 About 600 roles will be affected by the layoffs across the GoTo ecosystem as the company aims to strengthen its operations and consolidate certain businesses and teams, according to GoTo. 

Don't miss: GoTo further accelerates its profitability timelines

The layoffs come as GoTo announced an updated strategy to build an enduring and profitable company that will continue to thrive in the future. "In order to achieve this, extensive and ongoing reviews of each business area [will be] conducted to determine where improvements can be made," said its spokesperson. They continued by saying that after identifying the changes that needed to be made, it was decided that there was a need to create a "more streamlined organisation that is better equipped to respond to market demands."

GoTo then cited an example of its financial merchant business and how they would be combining its two offline merchant teams into one. "Changes like this will allow us to deliver a better, more cohesive experience to our merchants, while reducing costs," it said. It added that with this move, it will be able to create shared resources that can offer high quality services across the whole ecosystem, while also reducing the need for duplication within each business unit.

GoTo will also be reassessing its priorities and will scale down and de-emphasise businesses and projects deemed to be non-core, while prioritising current business needs.

"We will wind down certain parts of our Mitra Tokopedia business offerings so that we can focus our teams and resources where we believe they will make the most impact," it said. It added that new technology will also play a role in accelerating the company's speed of execution as well as reduce the margin for error. 

These changes unfortunately have impacted about 600 roles in GoTo and the company is currently working with those affected to support them through this time. "This will include providing them with a package that goes beyond what is statutory and is aimed at giving them financial, career and well-being support," a spokesperson said. 

They added that the changes will not impact the services GoTo provides to consumers, driver partners and merchants.

The news comes shortly after GoTo Gojek Tokopedia announced that it had further accelerated its profitability timelines. The company expectes an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to become positive within the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a press release. 

The group contribution margin is also set to become positive within the first quarter of 2023, accelerated in part by four quarters compared to previous guidance. The new profitability timeline, which will bring the company very close to positive operating cash flow, comes as a result of GoTo’s strategic plan based on revenue optimisation, cost management and ecosystem product growth, according to the release. 

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