The new round of layoffs of Meituan began. Someone mentioned on the social platform of the workplace that the layoffs of the US Mission had already begun as early as March. Individual employees with sensitive personality have also found clues of layoffs from various abnormal situations, and a new round of layoffs of Meituan has begun.
The news of the new round of layoffs of Meituan started from June 5438+0, April 15. Meituan laid off staff from April 8 to 9, and the businesses involved include the home business group where the core take-out business is located, the "cash cow" to the store business group, the wine travel business group, and Meituan's optimization, Meituan's food shopping, and fast donkey.
The layoffs range from 10% to 20%, and the positions involve operation, function and technical personnel, and the salary is "N+ 1".
An employee of Meituan said that the anonymous chat section inside Meituan was full of "graduation" posts, pointing to the biggest wave of layoffs in the last two years. The current layoffs are only preliminary actions, and there will be more personnel adjustments in late April. "The conference rooms that can be grabbed on Friday are all booked up by the human resources department. It is said that this is only the first wave of layoffs, and there will be two more. It is expected that layoffs will be completed by the end of April. "
According to the report, the layoffs were made after Meituan announced a net increase of17,000 jobs from July 20265438 to mid-March 2022. Meituan said in February that it would recruit 65,438+00,000 fresh graduates, including interns. Previously, due to the overall low tide of the community group buying industry, the news that Meituan preferred layoffs had already come out. However, the news of layoffs involving online car and wine travel was first exposed.
Meituan's 20021financial report shows that the annual revenue is 179 1 billion yuan, up 56.0% year-on-year, with a net loss of 23.5 billion yuan and an adjusted net loss of 156 billion yuan. Among them, the losses mainly come from new business and others, including community group buying, taking taxis and buying vegetables. In 20021year, the income from new business and other branches increased by 84.4% year-on-year, reaching 50.3 billion yuan. The operating loss of new business and other branches increased from 654.38+009 billion yuan in 2020 to 38.4 billion yuan in 2026.5438+0, and the operating loss rate increased by 36.6% year-on-year.
At present, wine travel is still the biggest source of profit for Meituan. In 20021year, the income of shops, hotels and tourism was 32.53 billion yuan, up 5.3 1% year-on-year, and the operating profit1409.3 billion yuan, up 72.3% year-on-year, and the operating profit rate increased from 38.5% to 43.3%. The food and beverage take-out business brought 96.3 billion yuan in revenue and 665.438 billion yuan in profit to Meituan.
Recently, Photon Planet confirmed from many insiders of Meituan that Meituan started a new round of mass layoffs last week, involving almost all business departments.
Meituan's current round of layoffs may involve 15%-20% of the company's overall employees. A person familiar with the matter told Photon Planet that the proportion of layoffs in the three major business segments is not the same. The home business group is about 5%, the store business group is about 10%, and the new business sector has the highest proportion of layoffs, of which "quick buy excellent" (quick donkey, Meituan optimization, Meituan shopping) has about 20% layoffs.
In other words, vice president Guo Wanhuai's three major businesses of "quick buy and excellent service" have become the "hardest hit" of this layoff.
It's not only about cutting the old, but also about recruiting new people. The Meituan seems to have signs of freezing.
A senior industry insider told Photon Planet that he received an interview invitation from the US delegation in early April, and suddenly told him not to come before the interview last week. HR told him that "the company has locked in the number of employees (the size of employees) and will make a round of layoffs, and will not recruit people for the time being".
From the beginning of last year, the expansion plan of recruiting 60 thousand new employees was made, and almost all business lines were laid off one year later. Through completely different actions, the US Mission showed its views on the current environment and its forecast for the future development.
In order to leave with dignity
A senior Internet person told Photon Planet that a couple both worked in a big factory. In March, her husband graduated from JD.COM, and in April, his wife in Meituan was also optimized.
If JD.COM's "graduation" to whitewash layoffs is a precedent for the funeral of a big factory, then the layoffs of Meituan set off a wave of quick funerals.
“JD。 Layoffs are relatively mild, and many things can be discussed, including how much monthly salary you pay, depending on how you fight for it. Some people left in March, others haven't left yet, so they don't have to go to work in the company after the talk, and they don't get paid until the last day. The US Mission is relatively simple and rude in dealing with layoffs, and there is no room for bargaining. "
Wang Hao, who became a member of the current round of layoffs of Meituan, told Photon Planet: "I was still working in the morning and didn't even sleep at noon. I had an appointment with other departments at five o'clock and was called at half past four. At that time, people were embarrassed. "
According to him, a leader of the company at HRBP and X2 levels informed the group, and then they would ask people to talk one by one. "Basically, the people in front have said it. Just look at the face and the people behind will know what's going on."
Faced with this situation, most people, Hao, are completely unprepared. Photon planet understands that behind the same layoffs, everyone's situation is completely different. Some people can accept it calmly and sign it with N+ 1 Some people burst into tears on the spot, unable to understand why it was themselves, and some people didn't want to be laid off, so they went against the company.
"In fact, fighting is basically useless and unnecessary. What's the point? " Wang Hao doesn't care, because he knows the company's methods very well. "The plan has long been determined. Now it is an implementation process and will only follow the process. "
When he recalled his experience a few days ago, he mentioned that he had tested HR. "If they don't accept this plan, how will they deal with it?" When the other party simply said "You don't have to accept this plan", the communication was terminated.
"All the permissions were locked the next day, which means it is futile to fight." Wang Hao said the company would give it three days. If the contract is not signed within three days, the company will unilaterally terminate the contract, and of course, it will make compensation according to the process. "
In fact, the company did make compensation according to the regulations, and if it continues to entangle, it will only have a worse impact on itself.
"If the contract is unilaterally terminated by the company, it will affect the tone of my next job." It is reported that many people hold this view, and finally they are forced to sign the resignation agreement decisively, and then quickly go through all the processes in one day.
In order to be decent now and decent in the future, one group after another walked out of the office building helplessly and unwillingly.
Not without warning
Many people have long heard about layoffs, but they have been dishonest. Colleagues sometimes joke with each other privately, "no one can say whether they can see it tomorrow."
Someone mentioned on the social platform of the workplace that the layoffs of the US Mission had already begun as early as March. At that time, individuals were informed that there should be no work content in urban space, and space authority should be arranged, and all the content should be placed in public space. In addition, the attendance system is developed, but the punching time is not limited.
Individual employees with sensitive personality have also found clues of layoffs from various abnormal situations. "About a week ago, the attendance time was locked and we were not allowed to watch it at all."
Although there have been doubts, when this day really comes, it is still unprepared. "Most people are stupid, without any warning, and don't give you any buffer time at all." According to the memory of a laid-off employee, the company informed him that day and then asked to hand in the computer in the afternoon. At 9 o'clock in the evening, all his permissions were closed.
Those who were laid off felt helpless, and those who stayed in the US Mission were also affected by layoffs.
Yang Chen told Photon Planet, "During this time, we can't book a meeting room. Every time it is full, it still takes a long time. " It was not until an accidental opportunity that he saw that the table in the conference room was full of resumes that he realized that HR people had booked the conference room in advance in order to lay off employees.
Many laid-off employees believe that the reason why the Meituan is so vigorous is that they are afraid that employees will rise up and attack. Once things get worse, it's hard to clean up. From the time logic point of view, there have been many precedents of layoffs in large factories before. Meituan has the strongest analysis team of domestic Internet giants, and may have drawn lessons from China's experience and made the above plan.
As for the reasons for layoffs, in addition to the epidemic situation and supervision known to the outside world, in the short term, May is the season for the US Mission to adjust its salary. At this time, layoffs may also take into account the cost factor.
Yang Chen told Photon Planet, "Under normal circumstances, if the performance of the previous year is not evaluated very low, there will be an increase of 5%- 10%." He analyzed that if layoffs are made at this time, the company will compensate N+ 1 according to the previous basic salary, and will not wait until after the salary adjustment, so the US Mission chose to lay off employees at this delicate time.
Another insider confirmed the above statement. He noticed that the promotion at the grocery store was postponed. "It is normal to start preparing for promotion nomination and debriefing in April, and May is the promotion season", but it has not yet started.
In 2022, layoffs became a topic closely related to the Internet, followed by the remarks that the demographic dividend peaked, the industry touched the ceiling, and even the Internet in China came to an end. Many Internet people are beginning to worry about their future.
It is understood that from July of 20021year to March of this year 15, domestic internet giants laid off 216,800 people in nine months, and more than 35 internet companies laid off employees, from Ali and Tencent to Xiaomi and ByteDance. Even JD.COM, who once said that he would not give up any brothers, began to implement it.
Moreover, layoffs are euphemistically called "sending talents to society", "encouraging wolves and eliminating petty bourgeoisie" or "congratulations on graduation" by Internet companies. Recently, Meituan's "Graduation Ceremony" even made a hot search in Zhihu, and internal staff said it was the biggest wave of layoffs in two years.
Nowadays, the wave of layoffs has swept the entire Internet industry, and both e-commerce, video websites and local life platforms have embarked on the road of layoffs. In a sense, this is not the problem of one or two companies, but the cold winter of the entire Internet industry.
From disorderly expansion to silence
Against the background of the epidemic and the global economic downturn, the Internet market in China can no longer rely on the existing traffic to produce more cakes, and this "graduation season" continues.
With the approach of winter, reducing costs and increasing efficiency has become an industry consciousness. For internet companies, this wave of layoffs is not only related to the past, but also affects the future.
In the past decade, domestic Internet companies have begun to expand on a large scale under the impetus of capital. Major internet companies are opening up new businesses to prevent being overtaken by other companies. With the attitude of attacking and defending, and constantly competing with each other at the business level, hot money has flocked to the barbaric expansion of investment and employee labor costs.
At that time, Internet companies constantly launched new business segments, and at the same time offered generous welfare benefits, which made countless people flock to it. Those well-known internet companies are called big factories by netizens because of their large number of employees.
However, this explosive growth driven by capital and hot money is facing the problem of sustainable development. Although the demand for Internet brought by the epidemic is increasing, it has not been translated into the development opportunities of Internet companies. Excessive expansion has caused departmental redundancy and huge labor costs, which has brought pressure to Internet giants.
With the arrival of the peak of incremental users of the Internet, the industry gradually changed from novelty to loss of freshness, and the new story also came to an abrupt end. In this context, Internet companies began to move towards virtual reality, which also declared that the bubble of the last decade had dispersed, the barbaric exaggeration had failed, and the hot money of the past had also vanished in the bubble.
Take Meituan as an example. On March 25th, Meituan released the 20021fourth quarter financial report and annual financial report. The financial report shows that in 20021year, Meituan achieved revenue of 179 1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 56%; The adjusted net loss was 654.38+05.6 billion yuan, including a loss of 3.9 billion yuan in the fourth quarter.
▲ Meituan image map
From the perspective of splitting food and beverage takeout, wine travel to stores and new business, all losses come from new business. In fact, in 20021year, the profits of take-out and wine travel businesses increased significantly. The profit of take-away business increased by 1 18%, reaching a record 61700,000 yuan, and the annual operating profit rate reached 6.4%. The profit of wine travel business reached a record 65.438+0.409 billion yuan, up 72.2% year-on-year, and the profit rate was as high as 43.4%. The new business suffered a huge loss of 38.39 billion yuan, an increase of 253.8% over the loss in 2020.
Specifically, the loss mainly comes from the increase of employee welfare expenditure brought by R&D by 654.38+0.32 billion, an increase of 6654.38+0.4%; Expenditure on promotion, advertising and user incentives increased by 654.38+0.22 billion, with an increase of 654.38+0.654.38+0.03%.
Not only that, the heavy-handed anti-monopoly of the regulatory authorities and the iron fist of policies to crack down on the disorderly expansion of capital have hit these Internet giants one by one, making the capital market suddenly silent, and the stock prices plummeted, and the major companies finally calmed down from the carnival of blind expansion.
The tide receded and the naked swimmer emerged from the water. Loss-making internet companies have fallen, and layoffs that have not fallen are inevitable. Companies that have been stretched for a long time have broken their arms to survive. Internet companies have rationally chosen to keep their own businesses and abolish or reduce non-main businesses that do not make money or even burn a lot of money. It is foreseeable that Internet companies will enter a stable period, and will not blindly expand as in previous years, but strive to survive.
From the cusp to an abrupt end
Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan, once said, "20 19 is the worst year in the past decade, but it is the best year in the next decade". This sentence has been verified again and again in the Internet age. This time, the worst situation fell on the US Mission.
According to insiders of Meituan, the layoffs of Meituan are not decent. HR interviews the laid-off employees and terminates the labor contract on the spot. There is no buffer period. People who are laid off are usually notified the night before and lose their internal software rights the next day.
An employee of Meituan said that the anonymous chat section inside Meituan was full of "graduation" posts, pointing to the biggest wave of layoffs in the last two years. The current layoffs are only preliminary actions, and there will be more personnel adjustments in late April. "The conference rooms that can be grabbed on Friday are all booked up by the human resources department. It is said that this is only the first wave of layoffs, and there will be two more. It is expected that layoffs will be completed by the end of April. "
▲ Internet companies lay off employees
In addition, investors are leaving one after another. On April 8, 2022, the information disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed that Sequoia Capital Shen Nanpeng recently continuously reduced its shareholding in Meituan (03690.HK). On March 3 1 day, Shen Nanpeng reduced its holding of Meituan by 25,578,500 shares, with an average price of HK$ 153.8 per share. On April 6th, Shen Nanpeng once again reduced its holdings of Meituan12,963,900 shares, each of which was HK$ 16654.38+0.74.
Shen Nanpeng sold about 38,542,400 shares through two reductions, amounting to HK$ 603 1 10,000, and its shareholding ratio dropped to 3.98%. Since April, 20021year, Shen Nanpeng has continuously reduced its holdings of Meituan, from 397 million shares in 2020 to 2190,000 shares at present, with an interval reduction of 45%.
For a long time in the past, Meituan was a company that stood on the cusp. Under the war of robbing people, companies with strong capital support behind them are often easy to offer generous treatment to compete for talents.
For internet practitioners, they are also willing to seize the opportunity in the golden age of the internet, and it is more likely to realize wealth freedom by standing at the forefront. But now it seems that the uncertainty of the Internet is far beyond its expectation, and some practitioners can hardly bear the consequences of layoffs, because in the cold winter, even finding a job to support their families has become a problem, not to mention changing to a higher-paying job.
In 2022, layoffs became the "sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of Internet practitioners, and both grassroots and middle-level employees faced the risk of being eliminated. Under the huge impact, Internet companies are no longer the "paradise" in the minds of practitioners, but layoffs can't solve the fundamental problem after all. Internet companies need to adjust their development direction, service methods and service contents, otherwise they are likely to be eliminated in winter.
In 2022, Internet companies should change from "disorderly expansion" to "return to essence", explore new additions with innovative thinking, and pay more attention to long-term value, so as to have opportunities for sustainable development.