Google may lay off thousands of employees

Source: International E-commerce News

    Google, a subsidiary of American technology giant Alphabet, will undergo a new round of layoffs, which will involve the team of Google Assistant (Voice Operations Virtual Assistant), as well as the hardware department responsible for manufacturing Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest.

    According to a 9to5 Google report, through restructuring, Google will shift towards a functional organizational model, such as having a team responsible for hardware engineering for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit. Previously, Google‘s Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit departments had separate independent teams to handle design, hardware engineering, software, UI, and other related issues.

    In January 2023, Forbes reported that Alphabet announced the layoffs of approximately 12000 people.

    According to layoffs. fyi statistics, in 2023, 1186 technology companies laid off 262582 employees. In early January 2024, 46 technology companies laid off employees, involving a total of 7528 employees. Among them, Google‘s office located in the SF Bay Area involved layoffs of approximately 1000 people.

    9to5 Google has confirmed that Fitbit co founders James Park and Eric Friedman, as well as other Fitbit leaders, will leave Google as part of this restructuring. However, a netizen commented, "I wouldn‘t be surprised to see them (referring to Fitbit co founders) launch a new fitness hardware company within about two years."

    Fitbit, a wearable device manufacturer, was founded in 2007 and went public in June 2015. With the popularity of wearable devices, the company‘s market value skyrocketed from $4 billion to $9.7 billion in 2015. However, by 2017, as Apple and Xiaomi surpassed Fitbit, Fitbit‘s market value had shrunk by over $8 billion

    In November 2019, Google‘s parent company Alphabet announced that it would invest $2.1 billion (approximately RMB 14.8 billion) to acquire Fitbit. On December 17, 2020, this acquisition case received conditional approval from the European Commission. On January 14, 2021, Google announced the completion of its acquisition of Fitbit.

    The adjustment of Fitbit‘s business this time is closely related to the market environment. In addition, some information shows that the business department has encountered some problems. For example, a netizen pointed out that "Fitbit has 1200 employees, which is too large for a watch." This is clearly accusing the Fitbit business department of being bloated.