For the second time in months, Beyond Interactive has taken the axe
to its payroll, chopping staff numbers by 30 per cent globally.
The Grey Global Group company blamed a softening online advertising
market for its second round of sackings.
About 100 staff from Beyond Interactive offices around the globe were
let go this time around.
However, according to Beyond Interactive Asia-Pacific co-founder and
CEO, Viveca Chan, the layoffs did not affect Hong Kong operations, which
is in the process of boosting staff count.
Ms Chan blamed the slump in online advertising for the latest
cutbacks.
"This is a dotcom problem. There are no layoffs in Hong Kong and China.
We are actually hiring more people. We had a very short dotcom boom over
here ... so there is little reliance on dotcoms for revenue by Beyond
Interactive. By the time we had launched, we had missed out on all the
hype. Our clients are blue chip multinationals," Ms Chan said.
The agency laid off 63 employees believed to be mostly junior staff,
globally in October last year.
Headquartered in Ann Arbor, the company has offices in Hong Kong,
Beijing, New York, and London among other locations.