Post-pandemic, some of the largest tech companies in the world have announced layoffs. The widespread layoffs sweeping across the globe are hitting the Middle East. And it was bound to happen eventually. 

According to the founder of Noon, Mohamed Alabbar, the company recently reduced its employees by roughly 10% to minimize costs. 

In an interview with Bloomberg, positions in marketing and advertising and in other departments were among those eliminated from the Dubai-based e-commerce company, Alabbar said.

“We’ve been cutting costs and reducing staff for the past year and a half,” said Alabbar.

In February, the e-commerce company completed the acquisition of online fashion retailer Namshi, which is expected to expand Noon’s digital offering of products and services to include more fashion and lifestyle brands for the region’s consumers.

Launched in 2016, Alabbar owns 50% of Noon, while Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF owns the other half. 

In 2021, Noon, the Middle Eastern rival to Amazon, planned to raise $2 billion from PIF and other investors to capture a larger slice of the Gulf e-commerce market, upgrade infrastructure and help speed up deliveries.

It is projected that the share of e-commerce in total retail sales will reach 12.6% by 2026, and Noon operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and is looking to expand in other nations across the Middle East.