Google’s navigation app Waze is closing its sales offices in the Philippines including the rest in the Asia Pacific and Latin America and ceases about 5% of its global workforce due to the declining app users in many countries.

The Verge reported that Waze Chief Executive Noam Bardin wrote a letter to his employees saying the layoffs are due to the coronavirus lockdown, which leave the road empty and fewer people use the Waze application for navigation that led to a significant fall in advertising 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,” Bardin wrote.

The app, which supposes to help more people to find accessible routes to avoid traffic jams, is laying off 30 people that are equivalent to 5 percent of its 555 overall employees.

However, Bardin didn’t disclose how many employees in the Philippines were to lose their jobs by the layoffs. Other countries which are affected include the sales offices in the Asia Pacific like Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and in part of Latin America are Colombia, Argentina, and Chile.

“We are giving each impacted employee as many continued benefits as possible, in accordance with local law,” Bardin said as he reassured that all their employees will be given full financial help including year-end bonuses and healthcare benefits in early 2021.

Considering the decision, Waze will “rethink priorities,” he added, “The Ads team will pare back and focus on the key markets that drive 93% of revenue and carry 95% of the KMDs we sell in.”

The company, which was acquired by Google in 2013 for $1.1 Billion, has turned to get fewer users each month since the start of the pandemic. The report on The Verge also stated that even the US users dropped by about 60 percent.

Hence, the closing of the aforementioned sales offices will refocus on the growing business in the countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Italy, Canada, and Mexico.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/9/21428907/waze-layoff-pandemic-google-navigation-driving