Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618)
Wen | Wang Lin
Cover source | Visual China
After 41 hours of rescue, 28-year-old ByteDance engineer Wu Mou unfortunately passed away, leaving behind a monthly mortgage of 21,000 yuan that needed to be repaid for 30 years, a wife who was just 2 months pregnant, and extremely sad parents.
It is not the first time that such a sad thing as the sudden death of employees of Internet factories has been mentioned. Just a month ago, the employees of Station B audit also collapsed at home because of long-term overtime.
However, the industry is highly competitive, the inward volume is intensifying, and no one wants to press the pause button. Even if 996 and 1075 have become the daily routine of the Internet industry, the long working hours still can't hide the fact that no one can confidently say that the Internet can still create an omnipotent miracle.
Don't believe it, you can first look at the Internet giants. From 2021 to now, the market value of the top ten Internet companies has fallen by nearly $900 billion, and the downward trend shows no signs of stopping.
There have been no super apps with more than 100 million users in 3 years, and the money of top venture capital institutions has begun to flow to new consumption, hard technology, and medical treatment. Young people are more inclined to "state-owned enterprises" or "examination for the public" to express their expectations for future work.
What many people don't expect is that the months when 1.4 billion people stayed at home at the beginning of 2020 were the last glory of the internet industry. Subsequently, the cloak of false prosperity fell layer by layer, and inexplicable emotions hung over the heads of every big factory and every Internet employee.
This sentiment began to erupt at the end of 2021 - ByteDance, Kuaishou, Xiaomi, Didi, Meituan... Internet companies that can almost be named are shrinking. Now, it's still not over. Tech Planet learned from employees of an e-commerce company and a new car-making company that soon, their company will also start laying off employees.
The lives of some of the employees of the internet factories have begun to change. After a large factory employee who once performed well left his job, he submitted 100 resumes and did not find a job, and he needed to rely on loans to survive. Some people have no mortgage and can only choose to return to their hometown. Others start saving in case they off.
In the time of decline, no one can be a survivor. They are like ants on a hot pot, overwhelmed by the fall.
Extra-long unemployment gap period
In February 2022, the spring cold is steep, and the spring rain mixed with the wet and cold air makes people shudder. Wu Hao needed to cover two layers of quilts to fight the cold. He took out his mobile phone from the bed, opened the BOSS direct recruitment to check the recruitment information, and after a minute, quickly put down the mobile phone, and the whole person curled up in the quilt.
"There is still no news," Wu Hao said silently in his heart.
This is Wu Hao's second month of looking for a job. He is just 30 years old this year, but the ancient adage of "thirty and standing" does not seem to work in him - less than half a year after starting a business, he has exhausted all his savings.
Life didn't allow him to continue betting on his dreams, and reality was more frightening than the weather. He must first bend down to solve the problems in front of him, such as a mortgage of more than 10,000 yuan per month. As a result, he once again joined the huge job search team at the end of the year when recruitment was least exuberant.
Wu Hao once served as the head of operation of a region in an important business line of the top domestic e-commerce platform, and according to the reason, he will not lack a job. However, at the moment when the business growth of Internet manufacturers is slowing down and recruitment is shrinking, the difficulty has increased exponentially. So far during the Spring Festival, Wu Hao has so far cast more than 100 resumes, but there has been no reply so far. On the day of communicating with Tech Planet, he sincerely asked, "Can you help me introduce a job?" ”
Wu Hao did not borrow money from friends, and his daily expenses were mainly sustained by bank loans. He used to want to work in a city near his home, but now he doesn't have that requirement, "just have a job."
At the end of last year, Internet companies invariably began to shrink. Didi's market value, which was subject to scrutiny as soon as it went public, has fallen to more than $20 billion, and the resumption of the APP is far from being seen. In order to maintain cash flow to cope with the impact of a number of players such as AutoNavi Map and T3 Travel, Didi has drastically laid off the employees of Orange Heart Preferred in the community group buying business.
Didi's move is almost a microcosm of the entire community group buying track in 2021. The hottest track of 2020 has a little fatigue in 2021, players quickly shuffled, and more than 10,000 people quickly lost their jobs. The gap in the market is no longer so big - Duoduo and Meituan Preferred have less need to expand significantly, and they are optimizing costs as much as possible and seeking profits.
Most of the talents in the community group buying industry are scattered throughout the country, rather than gathering in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Just two years ago, they left their cities and moved to Beijing and Shanghai almost as a family. They took out most of their savings to buy a house in Beijing, and by the end of last year some had sold the house outright.
"We were laid off at the beginning, the income is very unstable, there are tens of thousands of yuan of mortgages to repay every month, it is better to sell at a loss." A community group buying practitioner said, "I lost almost a million yuan inside and out." There was no place for Beishangguang, so he had no choice but to return to the city where he was originally located and start a business.
Life seemed to have been torn open, and the scars were clearly visible. An Orange Heart Preferred employee who has been unemployed for nearly 4 months has been wondering if to change tracks recently. But thinking that I am old again, is it not good to change tracks?
In fact, he is not very old, and he is only in his 30s. But in the world of the Internet, 35-year-olds are older employees.
What if the next one is me?
At least until ByteDance laid off employees on a large scale, no one would have thought that a big wave of contraction was coming. But once pessimism is ignited, it spreads quickly.
A Kuaishou employee originally planned to change jobs at the end of last year, and he even prepared a resume and was ready to invest. But at the end of last year, Kuaishou opened its first large-scale layoffs in 10 years of its establishment, with a proportion of up to 30%. At about the same time, the company canceled benefits such as afternoon tea, free meals, and room allowances. This directly increased the monthly expenses of most employees by at least 3,000 yuan, and the annual living expenses were nearly 40,000 yuan more.
At the same time, a number of Internet manufacturers have reported the news of layoffs, and there is no message to stop so far. He began to worry a little: What if the next one was me? He was no longer as anxious to find a job as he used to be. "Or else do it first," he began to comfort himself in his heart.
A Kuaishou employee who plans to jump ship said that he obviously feels that the interview process has now been lengthened. "The six rounds of interviews that were originally negotiated were later added to the interview, and the overall time was almost 2 months. But the salary fluctuation is not large. "This has greatly reduced his willingness to jump ship.
A Didi employee told Tech Planet, "From the second half of last year to the present, most people's mental journey is whether to change jobs or not. Forget it, or don't change it? What if you can't find it? ”
After ByteDance canceled the "Big and Small Week", many people's income was greatly reduced. An employee who has not yet been laid off byte education line said that he originally planned to change to a larger house, but now lives in a small room with a monthly rent of less than 10 square meters. In order to save the cost of his daily commute, he used to take the bus and now rides a shared bicycle. He chose to work overtime until 10 o'clock every day so that he could take a taxi home and the company reimbursed him.
One Lalala employee realized earlier that the turmoil might be coming. Since the beginning of last year, he has pre-saved his 10-month non-work expenses. "In case of passive unemployment or naked resignation, you can at least support yourself for 10 months."
Certainty makes people feel safe, which has almost become the biggest demand of the Internet. No organization can be stable forever, but the cash in Alipay can make people less anxious.
Employees of a leading domestic e-commerce platform are worried about the upcoming layoffs. "It hasn't been announced yet, but it's only in and out, and now everyone is in danger." The above-mentioned employees confessed.
The bigger concern is that his role doesn't directly bring growth to the company, biased towards analysis and strategy. At a time when the company's performance is sluggish, this kind of position without direct output is easier to optimize. Under this concern, he has already begun to submit resumes.
Internet magic is gone and a new order is being rebuilt
After the growth magic of the Internet disappeared, slimming became the first major demand.
A Meituan employee sighed, is there still an Internet company that does not lay off employees? Are there still Internet companies whose market capitalization does not fall?
In fact, most Internet companies have a phenomenon of talent overmatch. A first-line Internet executive told Tech Planet that most Internet companies have laid off 20%, or even 30%, which has little impact on the company's business.
Once growth stops, the first priority of Internet companies is to maintain the stability of their existing businesses. Once the demand for expansion is gone, the rate of recruitment will naturally decline. A large factory employee once quipped that every holiday, he did not see any platform with major problems. Just maintaining the system, really don't need that many people.
Under the strengthening of supervision, Ali and Meituan have received huge fines, the merger of Douyu and Huya led by Tencent has been stopped, and didi, which has been low-key listed, has undergone censorship and App removal within half a year, and profound changes have begun. As barbaric growth draws to a close, the Internet needs more comprehensive and refined rules as it goes from challenger to challengee.
A new order is being built. Tech companies are replacing the internet as the next new continent, most notably Tesla, whose stock price has soared from nearly $700 at the beginning of last year to $856 today. While Internet companies are busy laying off employees, technology companies such as new energy vehicle companies and chip companies are recruiting. A recently graduated chip designer has a salary of one million in a city like Nanjing.
No company can ensure a certain longevity, no company to ensure that it is not subverted, the defeat of them may not be peers, may be cross-border, just like 20 years ago, offline clothing stores will not think that most of the future users will shop online.
Internet companies are afraid of falling for failing to grasp emerging trends, like IBM and Nokia used to do. As a result, every company has begun to claim that its annual investment in research and development is increasing.
Although ByteDance is on the hot search because of the sudden death of employees, it is difficult to have a giant like Byte appear, at least in the Internet field. This is almost the consensus of the industry.
(Note: The article Wu Hao is a pseudonym.) ）
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