Singapore-based gaming and e-commerce company Sea Ltd, also Garena’s parent company, recently announced that they will lay off hundreds of staff from their Shanghai office of the Garena unit. The company is taking this harsh step following a quarterly loss of $1 billion. In addition, the company previously announced the shutdown of its streaming platform Booyah! from its Garena unit.
An anonymous source close to GamingonPhone has revealed that it is a company-wide restructuring and with a lot of loss-making ventures, Sea is terminating and halting several experimental and upcoming projects along with the job positions. And a recent report from Reuters is also hinting at the same.
Apart from job positions, a number of projects are also being shut down by Sea Ltd
Along with the job positions in the Shanghai office, Sea is also cutting down many projects from the Garen unit. Several cloud and blockchain projects have also been shut down to reduce company costs and increase efficiency. One of the most significant projects, SEA Labs, a project of the development unit, is also being halted for the time being.
The sudden shutdown of these projects will make many people lose their jobs. Although the decision is very hard, a Sea spokesperson told Reuters they are doing it because Sea needed to “focus resources on core operations.” In addition, Sea is looking to improve efficiency and focus on the company’s long-term strengths.
Sea Ltd was massively hit by the Free Fire ban in India
Many gaming companies saw a boom in their business when the pandemic arrived. Sea was no stranger to this. Free Fire is one of the world’s most famous battle royale games, bringing in most of the revenue for the company. Free Fire’s massive player base in India contributed most of Sea’s quarterly revenue. The game brought in more than USD 4 billion for the company since its release in 2017.
Sea’s post-pandemic business was not sustainable as it saw a 72 percent drop in its share price this year. Adding to this, the sudden ban of Free Fire by the government of India due to security reasons affected the company’s business the most.
As a result, the game saw a decline of 39% of its quarterly player base. Previously in March, Sea also warned that its Garena wing was taking a heavy hit from the game being banned in India, as the company saw a drastic fall in the company’s share. The company expects an even greater loss during the year’s second quarter.
What are your thoughts as Sea Ltd is set to lay off employees in the Garena unit? Let us know in the comments below!
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