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Google reportedly plans to lay off Waze employees following the company’s early announcement to cut at least 12,000 jobs. According to an email sent by Chris Phillips, VP and GM of Google’s Geo unit and obtained by CNBC, Waze will be moved over to Google’s ads system instead of having a dedicated ads system.
The tech industry is suffering from mass layoffs, and occasionally, we hear about a company laying off its employees. Google has already confirmed its plans to cut 12,000 jobs. The company even paused the construction of a new campus in California over financial concerns.
The Google-owned navigation app Waze is the latest service that is impacted by the company layoffs. The app was acquired in 2013 for $1.3 billion, and it’s one of the most popular navigation apps globally.
As per an email Phillips wrote to employees, the company has decided to “transition Waze’s ads monetization to be managed by the Global Business Organization (GBO), similar to Google Maps.” This means Waze employees working in sales, marketing, operations, and analytics teams would have to leave the company. The app currently has over 500 staff, and it remains to be seen what percentage of those will be laid off.
Google to layoff Waze employees
Back in late 2022, Google said it wanted to fold Waze into its Geo team. The team includes Google Earth, Street View, and Google Maps. The latest move by the company could reduce overlap. As well as “create a more scalable and optimized Waze Ads product,” as noted by Phillips. Moreover, the company will hold “our next Waze Town Hall” summit on July 11 to answer questions regarding the change and visions.
In a statement to The Verge, Waze’s head of PR, Caroline Bourdeau, asserted they remain “deeply committed to growing Waze’s unique brand, its beloved app, and its thriving community of volunteers and users.”
Over 200,000 employees have been laid off from tech companies so far, and more is yet to come. The mass layoffs even resulted in a probe by US senators to evaluate its impact on the 2024 election. Senators are worried that layoffs might reduce the platform’s ability to combat misinformation. Likewise, the ex-Google CEO predicted the 2024 election could be a mess due to AI and widespread misinformation.