[Epoch Times, May 21, 2022]Tencent reported a new round of layoffs. According to reports, Tencent Group announced the abolition of six business groups of the sports business department, involving about 100 employees.
On May 19, Tencent Group internally issued a “Notice on the Adjustment of the Organizational Structure of the OVBU Sports Business Department”, announcing the cancellation of the sports business department and other business groups, including the basketball operation group of the basketball business center and the football business center. The football operation group, the comprehensive large-scale project operation group of the comprehensive business and large-scale project center, the marketing center, the value-added product group of the product center, the recommended platform group and the portrait and algorithm group of the platform R&D center.
According to the notice, the reason for the change is based on changes in the external market environment and the adjustment needs of the company’s business, combined with Tencent’s decision to optimize the overall organization.
Tencent Sports is part of the Online Video Business Unit (OVBU) under Tencent PCG (Platform and Content Business Group).
The mainland self-media “Sports Big Business” reported that Tencent PCG broke the news that it would lay off 4,000 employees in March this year. Since then, it has been reported that Tencent Sports will be the hardest hit area for layoffs. Now Tencent Sports has been abolished in six business groups in one fell swoop. The total number of layoffs has reached about 100, and the proportion of layoffs is 1/3.
Although the six major business groups have been abolished, Tencent Sports has temporarily retained the sports copyright operation group, sports brokerage group, event live broadcast group, program group and other business groups with monetization ability.
A number of Tencent people from different business lines told Caijing magazine that most of the business groups are currently laying off staff, including Tencent Cloud, game business, advertising business, content business, etc. The investment department has not laid off staff yet. Among them, Tencent game business people said that the proportion of layoffs is about 10%. In March of this year, Tencent’s CSIG business has already had a round of layoffs, with a ratio of about 15%.
Tencent officials did not respond to this adjustment.
Previously, Tencent’s main business lines for layoffs were PCG (Platform and Content Business Group) and CSIG (Cloud and Smart Industry Business Group). A Tencent game business person said that now the game business has begun to lay off staff, the proportion is 10%. The person said that there had been a round of “soft persuasion” before, and this time it was a hard layoff.
A Tencent Cloud person said that his department started laying off staff in March this year. “Because of serious losses, we need to make profits as soon as possible.” There will be new layoff plans in the future. .
The layoffs of Tencent Sports may be related to Tencent’s sluggish performance in the first quarter.
On May 18, Tencent Holdings released its financial report for the first quarter of 2022. According to the financial report, the company’s revenue in the first quarter was 135.5 billion yuan, flat year-on-year; net profit was 23.4 billion yuan, down 51% year-on-year. Under non-IFRS, net profit was 25.5 billion yuan, down 23% year-on-year.
According to the 21st Century Business Herald, insiders of Tencent Sports said that the adjustment and operation was the hardest hit area. Many employees were directly notified of the layoff and had no opportunity to transfer their posts. However, the company also gave a compensation plan of at least N+1.
Responsible editor: Xu Menger