Employees are let go by the Google-owned navigation app Waze.
According to reports, Waze is planning to lay off employees from its navigation and mapping company, Waze, as it merges its mapping products. The move involves transitioning Waze to Google’s ads system, resulting in job cuts in sales, marketing, operations, and analytics departments at Waze.
The decision aims to create a more scalable and optimized Waze Ads product. While the exact number of job losses is unclear, Waze currently employs over 500 people. The company plans to manage Waze’s ads monetization through the Global Business Organization (GBO), similar to Google Maps. The email sent by Chris Phillips, VP and GM of Google’s Geo unit, outlined the reduction of roles in sales, marketing, operations, and analytics as a result of this transition.
It acquired Waze for approximately $1.1 billion in 2013. Waze is a popular navigation app with around 140 million active users, utilizing crowdsourced data for real-time traffic information. In 2020, Waze had already laid off about 30 employees (5% of its global workforce) during the pandemic and closed several offices in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions to refocus its business on specific markets.
