Mobike lays off 30% of its employees! Management response: normal business adjustments

On the 23rd, Mobike founder Hu Weiwei stepped down as CEO. Later, some employees stated on social media that Mobike would optimize personnel in departments that have overlapping business with Meituan, such as marketing, finance, technology, etc., and the overall layoff ratio would be between 20% and 30%.

On December 25, some media reported that the number of layoffs may be nearly 100. Generally, compensation is based on n+1, but if the amount exceeds 25,000 yuan, compensation will only be based on the upper limit of 25,000 yuan.

On the afternoon of the 25th, All Weather Technology learned from Mobike’s internal management that Mobike’s layoffs were indeed true, with the rate of layoffs being 30%. It is reported that the Mobike team has nearly a thousand people, which means that nearly 300 people are about to leave.

In response to rumors of layoffs spread online, Mobike responded that it was a normal business adjustment and some positions were still being recruited.

For employees affected by this adjustment, the company is actively coordinating and providing internal application opportunities. For resigned employees who fail to successfully apply for internal recruitment, the company will resolve the matter through negotiation in accordance with the Labor Contract Law and other relevant legal provisions to protect the rights and interests of every employee.

In addition, Mobike carried out two organizational structure adjustments and optimizations in the second half of the year, and corresponding positions were also adjusted.

It is worth noting that at the Mobike all-staff meeting in April, Wang Xing promised that Meituan would not lay off employees after acquiring Mobike. “Meituan and Mobike do not have so many overlapping businesses, so there is no need to worry about layoffs.” ." He comforted the Mobike employees.

But in fact, Meituan-Dianping itself has been laying off employees recently. A person close to Meituan Dianping told Sina Technology, "Meituan App has recently laid off its content operations team. It has already laid off a homepage product team with more than 100 people." The person also said, "Dianping App has also laid off employees before. There are more than 200 people.”

Meituan-Dianping responded to Sina Technology at the time that this was a normal business adjustment and the number of employees affected was less than 0.5% of the total number of employees. According to Wang Xingzeng, CEO of Meituan-Dianping, when Meituan-Dianping was listed this year, it currently has more than 50,000 employees. This means that the number of employees affected by Meituan-Dianping’s business adjustment is about 250.

Just a few days ago, on December 23, Mobike founder Hu Weiwei announced that he would resign as CEO of Mobike due to personal reasons, and company president Liu Yu would take over as CEO. Hu Weiwei said in an internal letter to employees that he had "completed the phased mission." After this resignation, Hu Weiwei will no longer hold any position in Mobike.

Wang Xing assured in an internal letter on April 4 this year that Mobike will continue to maintain an independent brand and operate independently. At the same time, except for himself as chairman, Mobike’s management team will remain unchanged. Wang Xiaofeng Hu Weiwei continues to serve as CEO, Hu Weiwei continues to serve as president, and Xia Yiping continues to serve as CTO.

Within a month, Mobike made new organizational adjustments. After the structural adjustment, Wang Xiaofeng stepped down as CEO and became a consultant for Mobike. Founder Hu Weiwei became Mobike CEO, and appointed Liu Yu as Mobike president, reporting to the CEO; former Mobike CTO Xia Yiping served as the head of the newly established Smart Transportation Laboratory , reporting to Meituan Senior Vice President Wang Huiwen.

However, Hu Weiwei has remained as low-key as ever since he became CEO, and Mobike only spoke via video during its press conference.

At the end of November, Beijing Mobike Technology Co., Ltd., the operating entity of Mobike, officially completed the industrial and commercial change of shareholders. Founder Hu Weiwei, investor Li Bin and others exited. Wang Xingcheng is the major shareholder, holding 95% of the shares. The other 5% of the shares are held by Mu Rongjun, senior vice president of Meituan-Dianping.

A few days ago, Hu Weiwei, the founder of Mobike, who said at the all-staff meeting after the merger with Meituan that he would not leave, also stepped down as CEO, which means that all the founding members are finally out. But she emphasized: "I must explain here that there is no 'palace fight', no discord, and no entanglement with any organization (which disappointed the media)."

Mobai, who works for Meituan, The road ahead is still unclear.

Meituan’s updated prospectus in September this year showed that in the first four months of this year’s financial data, Meituan’s adjusted net loss was 2.02 billion yuan, and the acquisition of Mobike was an important reason.

The prospectus also shows that from April 4 to 30, 2018, Mobike had 260 million rides, with revenue of 0.56 yuan per ride; total revenue of 147 million yuan, depreciation of bicycles and cars 396 million yuan, operating costs of 258 million yuan, gross profit of -407 million yuan, gross profit margin of -277.2%; a net loss of 480 million yuan was recorded.

It lost 480 million yuan in less than one month, while its revenue during the same period was only 147 million yuan. The level of money burning in the bicycle riding industry is staggering.

Before leaving office, Hu Weiwei revealed in an interview with the media that in the past few months, Mobike had hardly invested in new bicycles, but the order volume had increased. In fact, Meituan made it clear in its previous prospectus that it would not only further streamline operations and optimize the use of bicycles, but also expect the total number of bicycles to decrease.

In September this year, Mobike also began to shrink its overseas markets. More than a year after entering Manchester, England, Mobike decided to withdraw from the city, mainly due to serious damage and theft of bicycles.

In addition, Mobike has also accelerated its pace of commercialization. In November, Mobike officially launched "LBS Advertising Service", which uses LBS big data to implement an advertising service system. Mobike said it also mentioned the micro-new media matrix, as well as the commercialization possibilities in offline, core user groups, and car body creativity.

After Hu Weiwei steps down, there are rumors that Mobike will start to optimize personnel (that is, the layoffs crisis above) to further reduce costs.

21 Finance News is compiled from: NetEase Technology, The Paper, Caijing.com, Sina Technology, etc.

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