Uber has announced intent to lay off 3700 employees - about 14% of all its workers - in order to reduce operating expenses, in response to the impact of COVID-19 on the company's business. Most cuts will be from community operations, recruiting and driver help centers Greenlight Hubs, 40% of which wil be closed. Also Uber Eats will withdraw from 7 of its global markets. Uber began a hiring freeze in March, and took a writedown of $2B on investments in April.
And Airbnb - valued pre-COVID-19 at $31B - has announced that it's cutting 1900 employees - more 1 in 4 of its 7500 jobs - from units including Transportation, Airbnb Studios, Hotels and Lux. In an e-mail to employees Tuesday CEO Brian Chesky said the COVID-19 pandemic is "the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime". Airbnb's 2020 revenue is expected to be less than half that of 2019. Airbnb has about 650,000 US hosts in its system, who have seen their incomes - which many depend on to pay mortgages - shrink drastically.
Will Uber and Airbnb - and drivers and hosts - remain afloat through 2020? Stay tuned.