Unlike many companies frantically rushing to quell rumors about job cuts, Xiaomi distinguished itself by saying it has some 4,000 job vacancies to fill
Rumors have recently surfaced that Chinese tech giant Xiaomi is planning to lay off 10% of its staff, mainly targeting new employees and fresh graduates.
In response, Xiaomi said that the company has never dismissed employees due to changes in business conditions since its inception, but admitted that it had previously fired some employees who failed performance reviews.
Xiaomi added that more than 4,000 job openings are available.
In addition, employees from Xiaomi's smartphone department revealed to media that they had not heard of any layoffs or noticed any recent staff turnover.
Xiaomi is not the only tech company to be hit by news of layoffs. Since late last year, many companies have been rumored to have plans to slash headcounts.
On December 21, 2021, it was exposed online that Tencent-backed fashion e-commerce website, Mogujie, was planning to sack employees. The technical department would cut 80% of the jobs, while 30% of the staff would get the axe .
These fresh cuts followed similar moves in April last year, when Mogujie gave the pink slip to as many as 140 employees, or 14% of its staff.
In January this year, Kuaishou, the second-largest short-video company by daily active users in China, reportedly initiated massive layoffs, impacting business lines such as e-commerce, algorithm, global expansion, commercialization, games and the streaming website AcFun.
The cuts reached 30% of the firm's total headcounts, according to reports.
Another company said to be quietly slashing jobs is Zhihu, China's Q&A Quora-like website. Netizens revealed that half of the firm's video department has been given the marching orders.
However, in a response to queries from the financial news section of China.com, a web portal, Zhihu dismissed the allegations, saying video is an indispensable part of its content ecosystem.
"We have no plans to lay off staff in the video business," says a Zhihu spokesperson on condition of anonymity. "On the contrary, we welcome talented individuals in video streaming to join us, especially the product and operation departments."