Last Updated on: 6th July 2023, 05:20 pm
Middle East E-Commerce Giant Lays Off Hundreds Of Employees
One of the major online shopping platforms, Noon, often referred to as the Middle East version of Amazon, has laid off about 10%, or 340, of its 3,400 employees, Bloomberg reported.
According to founder Mohamed Alabbar, an Emirati businessman, the measure aims to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The laid-off employees come from a variety of departments, including marketing and advertising.
Alabbar said the company has cut spending and laid off employees over the past 18 months. He owns half of Noon’s shares and the other half is held by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Alabbar also claimed that they started cutting costs long before the big tech companies, adding that they have now completed the process.
In 2016, Noon was founded with Alabbar raising $1 billion from investors including PIF to launch the e-commerce company. Noon pursued an expansion strategy to capture a larger market share of the e-commerce industry in the Gulf region.
In early 2021, Alabbar said PIF and other investors planned to invest $2 billion in Noon to improve infrastructure and speed up delivery times.
However, Alabbar mentioned this week that Noon’s financial health has improved, with lower cash burn rates and better margins, prompting the company to reconsider whether it still needs the $2 billion investment loan.
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