OLX Autos Cuts 300 Employees, Changes Business Models to B2B and C2B

OLX Autos announced the termination of employment (PHK) for 300 of its Indonesian employees. The impact of changes in global economic conditions is considered to be the culprit behind this decision.

Quote from Cash, OLX Autos Indonesia Marketing Director Sandy Maulana confirmed the truth of the news. Overall OLX has shed 10% of employees across countries, business units and job functions. As many as 300 employees at OLX Autos Indonesia out of a total of 1.000 people were affected by layoffs from this decision.

As a business, OLX will focus on its core services, namely playing in the used car market. Even so, the company plans to change its business model from the current one, namely B2C to C2B and B2B.

"Therefore, we ensure that this change will not reduce OLX services in Indonesia," said Sandy.

Previously, the first information circulated through the news Deal Street Asia. Sources say the OLX Group is streamlining its business in Indonesia, including cutting the number of employees.

Sandy said that before this step was taken, his party had taken the necessary steps to reduce the cost structure due to changes in macroeconomic conditions. Even though it is not described in detail, OLX claims to have done various ways to overcome it.

"Unfortunately, we are now very forced to take the final step, which is to reduce the number of positions across our business."

OLX Autos Indonesia also announced the end of cooperation with contributors. In general, the OLX Group provides guarantees for affected employees in a fair, proper and respectable manner.

The company also ensures that the implementation of this policy is in line with the commitment to strengthen a sustainable business in the future.

similar player, Carsome, also took similar steps in September 2022. As many as 10% of employees in Indonesia and Thailand were laid off gradually in three different waves.

OLX trip

At the beginning of its presence, OLX heavily relied on the automotive classifieds business as the company's core business. There is also a property classification business which was eventually transferred to EPMG in early last year.

For the record, Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), a property portal group from the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia, acquired Lamudi Global, a property portal group operating in Indonesia, the Philippines and Mexico in May 2020.

A month earlier, EMPG also fully acquired the OLX Group, which operates in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and South Asia. This move succeeded in catapulting EMPG's valuation to a unicorn, thanks to an injection of $150 million from the OLX Group and other stakeholders.

Through the acquisition of OLX Indonesia's property business, Lamudi.co.id now has more than 4,5 million unique visitors, 600 thousand new listings every month, and generates more than two million buying interest which will ensure the high visibility of seller listings.

In July 2020, OLX also announced its acquisition of a similar local player, BeliMobilGue. This move changed the use of the brand to OLX Autos Indonesia (OLX Autos), as well as appointed BeliMobilGue chairman Johnny Widodo as part of OLX Indonesia until 2022.