Waze to lay off 5% of employees

GPS navigation software app Waze, which is owned by Google, is to lay off 5% of its workforce, according to an email sent to employees this morning. The company will cut about 30 people out of 555. Waze will also close its offices in Asia and Latin America and it will also rethink its business model in some markets. It is not yet known if there will be any layoffs in Israel.

In the email received by employees, Waze said that some of the layoffs are the result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has emptied highways worldwide with cities under lockdown and commuting on the wane and remote working on the rise. Consequently, less and less people are using Waze, resulting in less advertising revenue and lower profitability.