MADRID, 21 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Southeast Asian 'superapp' Grab, which offers everything from shared rides to food delivery, has announced that it will cut 1,000 jobs, the equivalent of 11% of its workforce, in order to reduce costs and remain competitive .

In a letter sent to employees, the co-founder and CEO of Grab, Anthony Tan, has defended that the announced downsizing is not intended to be "a shortcut to profitability."

"We believe that fundamental changes to our operating model and cost structure are needed to compete in the long term," he said.

In this way, he added that the main objective is the strategic reorganization of Grab, to move faster, work smarter and rebalance resources throughout its portfolio in accordance with its long-term strategies.

The announced workforce adjustment thus exceeds the one undertaken in 2020, when 5% of Grab employees lost their jobs, that is, some 360 ​​people.

Grab faces competition from similar companies, such as Indonesia's GoTO Group, which did lay off last year to maintain margins.

On the contrary, Grab increased its workforce by more than 3,000 people in 2022, since it also acquired the supermarket chain Jaya Grocer, so Grab currently has about 11,000 workers.

Regarding Grab's latest business results, it closed the first quarter of 2023 with attributable net losses of 244 million dollars (223.2 million euros), which represents a reduction of 42.3% compared to the ' red numbers' of 423 million dollars (387 million euros) accounted for in the same period last year.

Billing in the quarter was 525 million dollars (480.3 million euros), 130.3% more. On its side, the value of managed transactions experienced a rise of 3.2% in the period, up to 4,958 million dollars (4,536 million euros), while active users amounted to 33.3 million, 7.8 % further.

On its side, the costs associated with revenues were 372 million dollars (3494 million euros), so they increased by 20%.