Job cuts at TaniHub for the second time this year

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Hello reader,

When the 2008 global financial crisis happened, I was barely out of primary school. As a kid, I didn’t really understand what was going on most of the time.

I knew from reading the news that the economy was in a bad spot and that people were getting retrenched on a nearly unimaginable scale. But I didn’t have the detailed knowledge to understand why it was happening and what that would mean for the average person. To me, most of what I took away was: banks are tanking = bad.

Fast forward to today and things have changed – for me at least. I understand what’s happening with the economy and why so many people are getting laid off week after week. However, this means that I’m also more aware of how this is affecting other people as well as how companies are getting affected more specifically.

One such company that’s had to cut its workforce (twice) is TaniHub. Just this week, it implemented yet another round of layoffs. In today’s premium story, we explore what happened in greater detail.

Today we look at:

• TaniHub’s second round of layoffs
• Asia’s tourism and travel industry getting back in shape
• Other newsy highlights such as SoftBank marking down its FTX investment to US$0 and Sea Group narrowing its Q3 2022 EBITDA losses.

Premium summary

Pruning its workforce

Image credit: Timmy Loen

I’ve never been a founder or a CEO. As such, I don’t know what the decision-making process is like when it comes to conducting layoffs. Who stays? Who goes? I usually wonder how much of a “last resort” choice this is. Let’s take a look at what happened with TaniHub.

• Razed: Due to efficiency reasons, TaniHub decided to implement another round of staff cuts. The exact number of affected employees could not be determined, but an anonymous source tells Tech in Asia that a significant number of staff across almost all departments were laid off.
• Not enough nutrients? TaniHub bagged a US$65.5 million round in 2021. However, just months after that, the firm shut down two of its warehouses and let go of some employees earlier this year during its first round of layoffs. This happened at a time when the company had decided to shift its commerce business from a B2C to a B2B model.
• Digging deeper: On closer inspection, several problems are noticeable. Over the course of the year, TaniHub has also seen all of its C-suite executives leave the company. Additionally, its peer-to-peer lending business is experiencing a huge number of loan defaults.

Read more: Exclusive: Indonesia’s TaniHub slashes more jobs

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