Yhd.com denies unusual pace of departures after managers quit
Fast-growing Chinese e-commerce platform yhd.com said Monday that recent staff departures represented normal employee turnover, domestic news portal 163.com reported Monday.
A large number of middle-level managers or department directors are leaving the company, according to media reports that cited information from several staff who had recently left the company.
Though some employees chose to leave, new talent is joining the team, the company was quoted as saying in the report.
After U.S.-based retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc took full ownership of yhd.com in July, the company continued to provide its customers with a good shopping experience backed by the capital and supply chain of Wal-Mart, according to media reports.
Wal-Mart initially invested in the Chinese online retail platform in 2011 and gained majority control of the site by raising its stake to 51.3 percent in 2012.
The U.S. retail giant took full ownership of the e-commerce company in July, 10 days after two of its co-founders, former chairman Yu Gang and former CEO Liu Junling, resigned “to pursue their next ventures”.
Media reports said that the company’s employees felt insecure because the founding partners held no more than 20 percent of the company’s equity and the welfare benefits fell short of expectations.
However, what matters more is that the staff see no future for the company after the departures of senior executives, domestic news portal jiemian.com reported on July 27.
This year, employees found it difficult to operate the e-commerce platform due to lack of resources.
Also, the self-operated business model of yhd.com did not develop well, according to jiemian.com.
Wal-Mart has not pointed out a direction for the development of the company, the report said.
The Chinese online retail operator accounted for 1.3 percent of the market in terms of transactions on domestic shopping websites in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Tmall, a business-to-consumer unit of Alibaba Group Holdings, held about 55.6 percent. And China’s second-largest e-commerce company JD.com Inc accounted for 25.2 percent, according to data from Beijing-based iResearch Consulting Group released in September.