After losing billions at Alexa: Amazon wants to lay off around 10,000 employees [Bericht]

We recently reported that Amazon’s device division lost five billion US dollars. According to the New York Times, the group should respond this week and around 10,000 employees are resigning. The equipment department is to be downsized in particular, but fewer people are also to work in the retail and human resources departments in the future. Over the course of the year, Amazon’s share price has fallen by around 43 percent.

By the end of 2021: More than 800,000 new employees at Amazon

Between the end of 2019 and the end of 2021, Amazon had hired over 800,000 new employees, mainly in the fulfillment centers. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, online orders had risen significantly, and the war in Ukraine has been raging since February 24, 2022. Energy and transportation costs have increased significantly as a result of the war, but consumers are shopping less, meaning Amazon is selling less. Black Friday week starts on Friday with thousands of deals, maybe more people will buy then.

In addition, the use of Alexa has not developed as desired. Many Smart Speaker users, on the other hand, do not use voice control to buy goods from Amazon, but rather have the news read out, control music streaming services and set an alarm clock. Originally, however, the devices were intended to go shopping via voice, but hardly anyone uses that. Another option is to control the smart home using Alexa. For example, you can buy two Echo Dots plus a WLAN socket in a set. The socket can then be switched off using a voice command in order to save energy. Within the device division, Echo Show, Fire tablets and Kindle e-book readers as well as Fire TV Sticks are developed in addition to Echo speakers. In a year-on-year comparison Amazon sell almost 27 percent more Fire tablets, which can also be turned into an Echo Show using Show Mode. 10,000 employees work in the equipment division. Many smart end devices are offered either with very low margins or at cost price. New CEO Andy Jessy pays more attention to profitability than his predecessor, company founder Jeff Bezos.

Also worth reading: Amazon: Alexa loses billions

Collection on possible mass layoffs at Amazon:

• As a result of the share price drop and billions in losses in the device division, Amazon is set to lay off around 10,000 employees this week.
• Over the course of the year, Amazon’s share price has fallen by around 43 percent.
• Most employees of the equipment division are to be laid off. In addition, fewer people will work in the retail and human resources departments in the future.
• Many Alexa users don’t use voice control to shop by voice, as Amazon originally intended, but use it to set alarms, read the message, or stream music.

Sources: New York Times , I.D.C