Lyft, Uber’s competitor in the United States, announced on Friday that it would “significantly reduce” its teams to reduce costs and try to become profitable. This is his second social plan in six months. “I confirm that we will significantly reduce the size of the team as part of a restructuring in order to better meet the needs of passengers and drivers,” said boss David Risher, in a message addressed to employees and published on Friday. at the company’s San Francisco site. Earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal had already revealed the new layoffs. According to the American daily, Lyft, which has more than 4,000 employees, could lay off 30% or more of its staff. This measure should enable it to reduce its costs by half.
The car rental platform with driver has already laid off nearly 700 employees in November (about 13% of its workforce at the time). Company co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer spoke at the time about the risk of recession and rising carpool insurance costs. “We need to be a faster company, with fewer layers, where everyone is closer to our passengers and drivers,” said David Risher. Cost reductions should enable the app to lower ride prices, improve driver revenue and drive “profitable growth.” Lyft, which hasn’t diversified like Uber into delivering meals and other products, suffered $1.6 billion in net losses in 2022.
From Snap to Stripe to Google to Meta, most major Silicon Valley companies have implemented layoffs in recent months after hiring heavily before and during the pandemic. Like many other companies in other industries, they are facing adverse economic conditions, including rising interest rates to fight inflation.