eBay axes 1,000 employees

Online platform eBay has announced it will cut a thousand jobs, almost a tenth of its entire workforce. Second-hand may be gaining in popularity, but competition is increasing.

Second round of layoffs

CEO Jamie Iannone announced the mass lay-offs in an email to employees: “While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business“, the email read. The number of contracts within the “alternative workforce” – in short, freelancers and interims – will also be reduced in the coming months, reports The Guardian.

The company plans to reorganise to better align and consolidate teams, with the aim of improving “the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of customers around the world”. In February last year, eBay already laid off 500 employees.

The auction website had to admit to lower-than-expected forecasts for of the all-important year-end quarter. eBay was a pioneer in second-hand and platform sales, but is now struggling with that ‘handicap of a head start’. New disruptors are increasingly luring customers away, such as Vinted in the second-hand category and Temu and Shein for cheap new products.

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