Social-network services that once led the domestic Web-industry are now facing a downturn and they are finding that IT companies are not immune to labor toubles.
After shutting down its Beijing and London offices (in June and July respectively), social game network titan Gree also undertook a reorganizational move in its domestic operations too, calling for 200 employees to accept voluntary redundancy.
This game-centric mobile network has been growing amazingly for years, and was aiming at the global market by exporting its successful model of charging for cellphone games. The competition for qualified staff between Gree and its rival Mobage had forced salaries to crazy levels, with Gree announcing in 2012 that they were ready to pay a maximum ¥15 million for talented new grads — as a result many notable university graduates rushed to join them. The number of employees exploded from 174 in 2010 to 1,762 in 2013.