Chinese tech giant Tencent has been laying off 10% of its employees in mid-level positions since December to promote younger employees, KrAsia’s parent company 36Kr first reported today, citing multiple unnamed sources at Tencent.
A total of about 200 employees, most of which have served Tencent for more than a decade, will be affected by this reshuffle, which is part of the company’s third structural adjustment, according to the report. Previous big reshuffles had occurred at the fast-growing tech firm in 2005 and 2012.
Tencent declined to comment when contacted by KrAsia.
Tencent is not alone in the recent wave of structural optimization at Chinese tech firms. E-commerce giant JD.com has just fired 10% of its top executives while search engine Baidu rolled out a retirement plan. Zhang Yaqin, president of Baidu’s new business, turned out to be the first to take up the offer.
