Google Taiwan is reducing its workforce in the local market after Alphabet Inc, the parent company of the US search engine, announced in January that it would lay off 6 percent of its employees globally, as the international tech industry faces market uncertainty.
Google Taiwan began downsizing its local workforce on Wednesday, and more than 180 workers in the country would be affected, Chinese-language media reported.
Google Taiwan would remain in line with its global workforce reduction plan, and operations in Taiwan would make corresponding adjustments that would abide by local labor regulations, the company said in a statement on Friday.
Photo: REUTERS
The company would provide as much assistance as possible to the affected employees, including extended employee benefits and other support programs, it said.
Google operations in the Asia-Pacific region had completed workforce reductions by the end of last month, it said.
Taiwan is Google’s largest hardware research and development base outside the company’s US headquarters.
In 2018, Google spent US$1.1 billion to acquire Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Inc’s ODM manufacturing assets, which had rolled out the Pixel line for the US client.
In addition to passing the hardware assets to Google, HTC transferred 2,000 of its engineers to work for the US tech giant, significantly boosting its workforce in Taiwan.
The team had continued developing the Pixel for Google, and Google Taiwan continued hiring over the past two years.
In January, Alphabet chief executive officer Sundar Pichai — who announced the global downsizing — said that over the past two years Google had seen dramatic growth, and it had been hiring “for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
RSS