Photo: autoevolution
Waze continues to be one of the navigation apps that drivers most often turn to regardless of the mobile platform they use, but the global health struggle that’s been keeping us at home over the last six months or so has obviously taken its toll.
And the Google-owned company is now trying to deal with the whole thing using a restructuring plan that would eventually affect some 5 percent of its global workforce.
According to a report from The Verge, Waze, which was taken over by Google seven years ago, plans to let go of 30 out of 555 employees worldwide, with the company to also close a series of offices in Malaysia, Singapore, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina.
Waze CEO Noam Bardin told the staff in an internal memo that the restructuring is a consequence of the application being used less these days, something which in turn has generated “a significant drop in kilometers driven (KMDs), Carpools, and Ad revenue.”
“This has forced us to rethink priorities and we’ve decided to focus our resources on product improvements for our users, accelerate our investments in technical infrastructure, and refocus our sales and marketing efforts on a small number of high-value countries. These investments ensure the long-term success of Waze and that we exit this pandemic stronger than we entered it,” Bardin explained.
The layoffs affect teams in the sales, marketing, and partnership divisions, but the good news is that Waze wants to hire more people for the technology and engineering teams. The company says it’ll focus on high-profile countries where Waze is generating revenue, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, and Mexico.
In theory, the restructuring shouldn’t affect the application in the long-term, especially because Waze plans to invest more in tech and engineering. The company will be hosting a dedicated event on September 15 where it’ll discuss new features coming to the app, but it remains to be seen if more information on the layoffs is shared during the presentation.
According to a report from The Verge, Waze, which was taken over by Google seven years ago, plans to let go of 30 out of 555 employees worldwide, with the company to also close a series of offices in Malaysia, Singapore, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina.
Waze CEO Noam Bardin told the staff in an internal memo that the restructuring is a consequence of the application being used less these days, something which in turn has generated “a significant drop in kilometers driven (KMDs), Carpools, and Ad revenue.”
“This has forced us to rethink priorities and we’ve decided to focus our resources on product improvements for our users, accelerate our investments in technical infrastructure, and refocus our sales and marketing efforts on a small number of high-value countries. These investments ensure the long-term success of Waze and that we exit this pandemic stronger than we entered it,” Bardin explained.
The layoffs affect teams in the sales, marketing, and partnership divisions, but the good news is that Waze wants to hire more people for the technology and engineering teams. The company says it’ll focus on high-profile countries where Waze is generating revenue, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, and Mexico.
In theory, the restructuring shouldn’t affect the application in the long-term, especially because Waze plans to invest more in tech and engineering. The company will be hosting a dedicated event on September 15 where it’ll discuss new features coming to the app, but it remains to be seen if more information on the layoffs is shared during the presentation.
Google News