The number of layoffs at Waze is still unclear.
American tech major Google has reportedly trimmed jobs at mapping app Waze, which it acquired in 2013 for around $1.3 billion. While the number of affected employees is unclear at the moment, the move by the Alphabet-owned company comes as it merges the app’s advertising system with Google Ads technology.
According to a CNBC report, citing an email from Chris Phillips, who leads the Geo division, the company will “create a more scalable and optimized Waze Ads product.” He added that Google will notify advertisers and partners about the change on Wednesday. Waze has over 500 employees, the report noted.
“In order to create a better, more seamless long-term experience for Waze advertisers, we’ve begun transitioning Waze’s existing advertising system to Google Ads technology,” according to a Reuters report, which quoted Google. “As part of this update, we’ve reduced those roles focused on Waze Ads monetization,” it added.
Waze had gained significant popularity for its unique approach of using real-time data from its community of users to provide accurate and up-to-date traffic information. The acquisition allowed Google to leverage this user-generated data to improve its mapping services, particularly Google Maps.
In December, another Reuters report highlighted that Google will merge Waze with Google Maps in order to consolidate the processes. Google’s parent Alphabet will integrate Waze into Google Geo. As the term suggests, Google Geo encompasses a range of products and services provided by Google that revolve around location-based data and mapping. These include Google Maps, Google Places, Google Earth, Google Street View, etc.
Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai-led Alphabet notified in a staff memo in January to lay off 6% of its workforce or cut about 12,000 jobs. The company was prepared for “a different economic reality” and the CEO took “full responsibility” for the decisions that led to the layoffs. Google’s job cuts also affected the national shores, and the company reportedly laid off 453 employees across various departments in February.
Among other cost-cutting measures, Alphabet-owned artificial intelligence firm DeepMind Technologies also reportedly announced, in January, to shut down its office in Canada’s Edmonton. Apart from Google, several other tech companies like Meta, Twitter, and Microsoft, Amazon, among others, have laid off thousands of employees in an attempt to gear up for a global economic slowdown. In a nutshell, a setback in consumer spending due to high inflation and the threat of a looming recession this year has pushed corporates to keep a lid on their spending.
