Startup decacorn Gojek has announced that it’s shutting down its lifestyle app GoLife and laying off hundreds of employees as the company reels from the effects of the pandemic.
GoLife is a platform that provides on-demand cleaning, massage, and laundry services, among others, with partner service providers mostly called to customers’ homes using the app.
Gojek says it has decided to shut down GoLife after considering current economic conditions and a shift in attitude among customers, who have become more wary of physical interaction with service providers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID-19 has extraordinarily affected our business and presented challenges that we must face together,” Gojek co-CEO Kevin Aluwi wrote in an email to employees yesterday, as picked up by state news agency Antara.
Gojek is also shutting down its GoFood Festival division, which operates physical food marketplaces featuring Gojek’s affiliated food and beverage merchants.
Gojek is laying off 430 employees, most of whom are in the GoLife and GoFood Festival divisions, representing nine percent of the startup’s total number of employees. Gojek co-CEO Andre Soelistyo said employees who have been made redundant will receive severance pay and other benefits valued higher than that regulated by the government.
GoLife is officially shutting down on July 27, while no specific date was given for the shutting down of GoFood Festival.
Moving forward, Gojek says it will focus on its three core businesses, namely ride-hailing, food delivery, and e-wallet platform GoPay.
Gojek has actually begun trimming down services in GoLife since late last year, with the biggest moneymakers GoMassage (spa and massage) and GoClean (house cleaning) services, which contributed to some 90 percent of the lifestyle platform’s earnings, retained.
With the shutting down of all GoLife services, Gojek has pledged to provide online training to partner service providers and give financial aid to those who qualify.
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