Gojek slashes 9% of workforce due to COVID-19

Gojek is cutting 9% of its workforce, equivalent to 430 employees, as it focuses on its 'core' services to offset declines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Indonesian super app is shutting down verticals "that are no longer viable during this period", co-CEOs Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi said in an internal email sent to staff. That includes its GoLife lifestyle division, which offers home services like massages and cleaning, and GoFood Festivals, a festival featuring GoFood merchants.

Of the 430 workers that have been retrenched this week, "many" work for these divisions, according to reports.

Cutting these divisions will allow the company to focus on its "core" services of transport, food delivery and payments. The latter informed Facebook's recent investment in Gojek, with WhatsApp chief operating officer Matt Idema saying at the time the combination of WhatsApp's communication platform with Gojek's commerce platform, distribution and payment infrastructure can "bring millions of people into Indonesia’s growing digital economy".

Gojek's cost-cutting measures follow those of rival Grab, which announced earlier this month that it was cutting about 360 positions, or about 5% of its headcount.