In the first month of 2024, two American payment giants, PayPal and Block, both entered the field of cryptocurrency payments and announced layoffs today. PayPal CEO confirmed a 9% reduction in workforce, which is expected to affect 2,500 employees. Block, on the other hand, is rumored to lay off at least 1,000 people by the end of the year.
Context:
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Background:
Massive layoffs! Avalanche developer Ava Labs streamlines marketing department, stating “bear market is too difficult.”
Table of Contents:
PayPal to lay off 9%
Block plans to cut 1,000 jobs
The wave of layoffs in the US tech industry continues.
At the beginning of the new year in 2024, the US tech industry has announced consecutive layoffs, and this week, two American payment giants that have entered the cryptocurrency payment track, PayPal, which issued the stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD) last year, and Block, led by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, have made large-scale layoffs.
According to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, Alex Chris, who took over as CEO of PayPal in September last year, stated in a staff memo issued on Tuesday that the company will lay off 9% of its workforce, affecting approximately 2,500 employees. As of the end of 2023, PayPal had approximately 27,800 employees. Last year, the company also carried out a wave of layoffs, letting go of about 2,000 employees, accounting for 7% of its workforce.
The newly appointed CEO, Chris, is working hard to deal with the increasing competition, profit pressure, a nearly 22% decline in stock price in the past year, and internal and external challenges such as multiple analysts downgrading their ratings. In his memo, he told employees that the company will “adjust” its size by directly eliminating positions through layoffs throughout the year.
Further reading:
PayPal declares the arrival of the “cryptocurrency payment era”: People crave a faster, cheaper global financial system.
Another payment giant, Block, which was announced to be laying off employees today, is expected to start layoffs on Tuesday. According to a source, Block has already laid off hundreds of employees today, as reported by WSJ.
CEO Jack Dorsey stated in the earnings conference call in November last year that the company’s employee growth has exceeded business growth. They plan to lay off 1,000 employees (slightly below 8% of the total of 13,000 employees) by the end of 2024 to reach the target of having a total of less than 12,000 employees. The company had already laid off 40 employees of its music streaming application, Tidal, in December last year.
According to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Jack Dorsey stated that the company will separate from “a large number of teammates,” and the layoffs will mainly target employees of Cash App, Square, and the foundational team at Block.
PayPal and Block are not the only tech companies to announce layoffs in 2024. Many tech companies have carried out layoffs in the first month of the new year. According to CNN, cross-border e-commerce giant eBay announced a layoff of 1,000 employees, accounting for 9% of its total workforce. Amazon is also laying off hundreds of people, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned of further layoffs in the future at the beginning of the year.
Data from Layoffs.fyi shows that as of Tuesday afternoon, in 2024, a total of 98 tech companies have laid off more than 25,000 employees. Last year, over 1,100 companies laid off 262,595 people.
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