Southeast Asian e-commerce giant Shopee recently got its new tech hires in limbo, sparking outrage on social media in China.
“After landing in Singapore on August 25, I received a phone call notifying me that Shopee decided to withdraw my job offer. I feel like I'm the most miserable person ever because all my plans for starting a new life here have been thwarted," a user who goes by the pseudonym “Linge” posted on the Chinese workplace social app Maimai on Friday.
A number of others left comments below the post, complaining that they, too, had their job offers recently revoked by Shopee.
"When I had already obtained a Singapore work visa and was about to start working for Shopee, I got a call from them saying my offer has been revoked. Not a few people have been impacted, from new grads to experienced candidates," said another anonymous user.
The precise number of new hires whose offers were pulled is unclear, but roughly 60 people have formed a WeChat group, trying to explore countermeasures and protect their rights.
Even for the company's recruiters, the decision to retract job offers was hasty. Some new hires claimed that they were still in touch with recruiters concerning post-onboarding work arrangements days before their positions were canceled.
According to those in the know, all of the revoked job offers were related to research and development roles. “The company typically hires based on the headcount it had planned for the previous year, but this year, with increasing macroeconomic uncertainties, Shopee may have made a change to cut costs and improve efficiency," said a person familiar with the matter.
"Due to adjustments to hiring plans on some tech teams, a number of roles at Shopee are no longer available. We are working closely to support those affected," the company told PingWest.
The mass cancellation of job opportunities is unprecedented for Shopee. To keep up with its rapid expansion over the past few years, especially as the Covid-19 outbreak has boosted e-commerce, the Singaporean e-tailer has been aggressively hiring, luring a big pool of software engineers from China.
For some Chinese tech talent, the intense crackdown on the internet industry by regulators in 2021 and the recent downturn in economic growth have weighed on their career path. In addition, long working hours and hostile policies against tech talent over the age of 35 pushed by Chinese companies are driving certain of them to seek job opportunities overseas.
With its large Chinese community, proximity to China, and plentiful tech job options, Singapore is a preferred choice for those aspiring to relocate abroad. Therefore, in recent years, Shopee has been regarded by Chinese engineers as the most secure and practical way to move to Singapore for work.
But alas, that door appears to be closing. As the company's focus has shifted from rapid growth to profitability, it has begun cutting costs and scaling back, suggesting they don't need as many engineers.
On August 16, Sea Limited, the parent company of Shopee, reported second-quarter earnings, with a net loss of $931 million, more than double the $433.7 million in the same period last year. Although its quarterly revenue rose 29% year-on-year to $2.9 billion, the growth rate was slower than in previous quarters.
As the global economy reopens, the company said it saw slowing online retail sales and growth in some markets and suspended its 2022 e-commerce guidance.
Previously, fueled by easy monetary policy, Sea had secured large funding from investors to accelerate the expansion of its e-commerce arm Shopee, beyond Southeast Asia, into Latin America, Europe, and India.
Heading into 2022, volatility in public markets, coupled with rising interest rates, inflation, war, and growing investor pessimism, has led to a slew of companies adjusting their strategies, focusing more on core markets and businesses, and prioritizing profitability.
Shopee is following suit, closing operations in India and France in March, exiting Spain in June, and cutting personnel in its food delivery team in the same month.
The chill has already branched out in the US. Big names including Meta, Google and Microsoft have announced hiring freezes, and dozens of startups have slashed jobs in a bid to extend their runways until investors give them more cash. Twitter, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and real-estate brokerage Redfin also rescinded some job offers in June.
Coinbase offered its former would-be employees severance packages, which ranged from two to three months at full pay, depending on their start date. It also gave them access to a “talent hub,” where they could add their name and resume for recruiters at other tech companies, according to Wired
Similar to Coinbase, to assuage the rage of these candidates, Shopee will offer one month's salary as compensation and said that other expenses, including air tickets to Singapore, hotels, etc., could be covered.
But for now, those affected engineers are not happy with the severance pay, as some of them claim to have poured significant energy and time into relocating to Singapore and even changed their life plans.
“Linge” said that he has no intention to return to China in the near future, but will continue to discuss compensation with Shopee and look for other employment options in the city-state. Others said they prepare to lodge a complaint with Singapore's Ministry of Manpower over Shopee's actions in hopes of a more satisfactory settlement.
"Going via the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) and the MOM to find a settlement could be a time-consuming and taxing ordeal," said Momentum Works, a Singapore-based venture capital firm. For those still looking for job in Singapore, ByteDance, Grab, Google, and some startups, etc., are all good bets, the firm suggested.