Silicon valley rental giant Airbnb has reportedly cut 1,900 jobs, or around 25 percent of its global workforce, due to a decline in revenue the company has suffered during the Chinese virus pandemic.
TechCrunch reports that Silicon Valley rental giant Airbnb, which allows users to rent out their homes to travelers, has announced that it is laying off a quarter of its global workforce citing revenue declines and a need to curtail costs.
In a note from Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky, the company stated that it would be laying off 1,900 companies or 25.3 percent of its 7,500 workers worldwide. The layoffs will impact a number of internal Airbnb products including Transportation and Airbnb Studios which will be placed on hold. Its other projects such as Hotels and Lux will be “scaled back.”
The company did not provide a per-country breakdown of its layoffs but told TechCrunch that its staffing cuts are “mapped to a more focused business.” Airbnb reportedly anticipates its 2020 revenue coming in under 50 percent of 2019’s total, which was around $4.8 billion according to reports.
Airbnb isn’t the only Silicon Valley tech firm cutting staff partly due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, Breitbart News recently reported that tech giant Google is slashing its marketing budgets by as much as half for the second half of 2020. One email that was sent to marketing employees this week notes budget cuts and hiring freezes for full-time and contract employees.
One message from a global director sent to employees this week states: “There are budget cuts and hiring freezes happening across marketing and across Google. We, along with the rest of marketing, have been asked to cut our budget by about half for H2.” H2 refers to the second half of the year.
A company spokesperson stated that some division’s budgets are being cut by as much as half but others may not be since the company is still “recalibrating.” The spokesperson stated: “As we outlined last week, we are re-evaluating the pace of our investment plans for the remainder of 2020 and will focus on a select number of important marketing efforts. We continue to have a robust marketing budget, particularly in digital, in many business areas.”
It was also recently announced that food and restaurant review app Yelp would be laying off 1,000 workers and furloughing 1,100 more, amounting to approximately one-third of its staff. Event ticketing service Eventbrite has laid off 450 employees, approximately half of its workforce.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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