As part of its ongoing downsizing exercise, e-commerce giant Lazada has reportedly let go of several senior-level executives including chief customer care officer Brigitte Daubry, who is based in Singapore, Lazada Malaysia’s CEO and chief logistics officer, as well as chief marketing officers across markets, according to a report in The Edge Singapore on Friday.
Lazada is reportedly axing a significant portion of its workforce in Singapore. While an official number could not ascertained, Tech In Asia reported that the Alibaba-owned firm may cut about 30% of its headcount across markets.
The e-commerce giant has a presence in six SE Asian countries – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.
DealStreetAsia has reached out to Lazada for comments.
Lazada has seen many leadership rotations over the past few years. In 2022, the company named James Dong, its former head of the Thailand business, as its CEO, replacing former chief Chun Li. In 2020, Li took over the role from Pierre Poignant, who succeeded Lucy Peng in December 2018.
Lazada’s mass layoffs reports come at a time when it received a capital infusion from parent company Alibaba last month.
As reported by DealStreetAsia in December, Lazada received $634 million in capital infusion, which marked the fourth round of investment from Alibaba into its SE Asia e-commerce arm in 2023. In total, Lazada raised about $1.8 billion over four rounds.
The capital infusion was seen as a move to fuel Lazada’s ammunition to battle competition from rivals including Sea Ltd’s Shopee and Indonesia’s Tokopedia, which recently inked a deal with TikTok.
Lazada was founded in Singapore in 2012 and acquired by Alibaba four years later. In 2022, the Chinese tech behemoth pumped more than $1.6 billion into Lazada in over three tranches — $378 million in April, $913 million in July, and $343 million in October, signaling its intent to push the e-commerce unit in Southeast Asia, where more than 460 million people are connected to the internet.
Aside from Lazada, Alibaba’s international commerce retail business also includes AliExpress, Trendy, and Daraz.
According to a report by Momentum Works, Lazada held the position of the second-largest e-commerce company in Southeast Asia. In 2022, its market share by gross merchandising value (GMV) was estimated to be approximately 20.2%, placing it behind Shopee, which dominated the market with a share of 48.1%.
Tokopedia, operating solely in Indonesia, secured the third position with an 18.5% market share. However, with its recent consolidation with TikTok Shop, which has experienced rapid growth over the past two years, Tokopedia is expected to expand its market share and pose a competitive threat to regional peers, including Lazada.