Naver lays off employees, though only dozens and overseas

Tech

Published: 09 Mar. 2023, 18:17 Updated: 10 Mar. 2023, 14:12

Naver lays off employees, though only dozens and overseas

Naver's headquarters in Bundang, Gyeonggi [NEWS1]

Naver has laid off dozens of employees at non-Korean subsidiaries, according to the Korean tech company and local media outlets.

This marks the first job cuts by a major Korean major tech company amid mass tech layoff in the United States.

Wattpad is a Toronto-based storytelling platform operator while Poshmark is a California-based online fashion commerce service. Both are fully owned by Naver.

Wattpad announced on Wednesday that 15.7 percent of its employees were let go, which is 42 out of total 267.

A Naver spokesperson briefly commented that the information “seems to be true.”

"However, the decisions to lay off employees were made independently by the subsidiaries themselves," she said.

Nam Kyung-bo, the company’s interim president, is reported to have sent an email out to all employees. The president said the layoffs are cost-cutting measures due to the economic environment.

“As you all know, the global economic reality over the past year has fundamentally changed – and like other businesses, we are not immune,” he said. “Despite our best efforts over the past several months to limit the impact of the changing economic environment, today, we’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our workforce.”

The company is said to have met with each departing employee. It will provide at least 12 weeks of severance and six months of continued benefits to the employees.

Started in 2006, Wattpad offers a website and app for creators to share their stories in the format of webtoons and web novels.

Naver acquired Wattpad for 653 billion won ($494.5 million) in 2021.

Last month, subsidiary Poshmark, the largest online fashion commerce service in the North American region, laid off about 2 percent of its employees.

Founded in 2011, Poshmark is a social marketplace with over 80 million active users.

The acquisition was completed in January.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]