MENA e-commerce giant Noon has cut 10% of its jobs to save on costs

E-commerce platform Noon has slashed 10% of its jobs to trim costs, founder Mohamed Alabbar told Bloomberg in an interview. The downsizing included cutting jobs in marketing, advertising, and other departments, Alabbar told Bloomberg. The slew of layoffs were rolled out over the past year and a half. “We started [layoffs] before the big tech companies did but we’re done now,” Alabbar said.

The global tech sector has seen its largest bout of job cuts in recent months, with Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms all ending worker contracts after they were left overstaffed due to a hiring binge during the pandemic, Bloomberg explained. Upwards of 67k jobs have been eliminated in the industry as of early February, as per Bloomberg’s tracker.

But some outfits in MENA are defying the tech sector slump and continue to attract funds from investors, Bloomberg explained. The IPO scene in the region continues to see strong performers, pushing bankers to look at Noon and other tech firms as good prospects for floatation. Nevertheless, Noon’s founder told Bloomberg that there are no plans for going public.

More about Noon: The Dubai-based e-commerce platform was founded in 2016 and is split 50-50 between Alabbar and KSA’s sovereign wealth fund. The outfit operates in the UAE, KSA, and Egypt, and it is looking to expand elsewhere in MENA, according to Bloomberg. Noon’s financial performance is now trending upwards. The “cash burn rate has gone down drastically and our margins are getting better,” Alabbar said last week in statements cited by Bloomberg.