Due to Advertising Market Slump..."Google Lays Off 200 Key Employees Including Developers"

Google has laid off at least 200 key department personnel, including developers, CNBC reported on the 1st (local time).

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to the report, Asim Husain, Vice President of Google Developer Ecosystem (GDE), sent an email to employees last week announcing the restructuring plan. He explained that this restructuring is the largest reduction planned for developers this year.

Vice President Husain stated, "This announcement may cause many to feel anxiety or frustration," and added, "We plan to strengthen our workforce in high-growth regions to solidify our global presence and to close the gap with business partners and the developer community."

This restructuring targets core department personnel who build the technical foundation of the company's main products and protect users' online safety. This includes departments such as information technology, Python programming language development, technical infrastructure, security, app platforms, governance, and data protection.

Among the layoffs, at least 50 of the approximately 200 employees are confirmed to be engineering staff at the Sunnyvale headquarters in California, USA. Google plans to fill these vacancies by hiring personnel in Mexico and India.

Google's parent company Alphabet has been continuously reducing staff since early last year when it announced plans to cut about 12,000 employees, equivalent to 6% of its total workforce, due to a downturn in the online advertising market. Last month, Ruth Porat, Google's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), announced that restructuring of the finance department is planned. In March this year, Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Google Search, informed employees that Google plans to form teams closer to users in India and Brazil, where labor costs are lower than in the United States.

A Google spokesperson told CNBC, "As we have said before, we are responsibly investing in the company's highest priorities and important upcoming opportunities," explaining the background of the restructuring as "mostly changes made to increase efficiency, improve productivity, remove layers, and focus available resources on priority products."

Meanwhile, Alphabet's first-quarter revenue, released last week, was $80.54 billion, a 15% increase compared to the same period last year. Earnings per share also exceeded market expectations, recording $1.51. Along with the earnings announcement, the company revealed plans for its first-ever dividend payment and a $70 billion share buyback program, attracting market attention. Alphabet's stock closed slightly higher on the New York Stock Exchange that day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.