IBM Lays Off 8,000 Employees for AI Automation.

IBM Lays Off 8,000 Employees for AI Automation, Only to Rehire Just as Many Soon After Because Of…

IBM made a bold move by laying off thousands, only to bring back just as many. A surprising shift in strategy is changing the way tech companies use AI. Routine tasks were automated, but something unexpected followed.

In 2023, IBM made headlines when it laid off 8,000 employees from its human resources department. The reason? A new artificial intelligence system called AskHR was set to replace routine tasks like payroll management, vacation requests, and employee documentation.

The company argued that this transformation would streamline operations, reduce costs, and ultimately boost productivity. And indeed, IBM reported an impressive $3.5 billion increase in productivity across more than 70 job roles.

However, the real twist came when the company’s total workforce didn’t shrink as expected. Instead of simply slashing jobs, IBM found itself rehiring in areas that required human creativity and expertise. Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, explained that the savings from automation were funneled into hiring more skilled workers for roles in software engineering, sales, and marketing. These new positions, focused on high-value tasks, became a direct result of IBM’s AI-driven evolution.

A Surprising Outcome: More Jobs Created, Not Fewer

The layoffs, which initially seemed like a cost-cutting measure, had the opposite effect. Arvind Krishna explained this surprising outcome during an interview with The Wall Street Journal: “Our total employment has actually gone up, because what [AI] does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas.”

In other words, while routine HR tasks were automated, IBM redirected the freed-up resources into areas that were resistant to automation. The demand for roles that required creative thinking, problem-solving, and human interaction—skills that AI cannot easily replicate—began to rise.

This was a bold pivot for a company that had made a name for itself in the AI space. By embracing automation, IBM didn’t just aim to reduce its workforce—it sought to reshape its entire employment model to fit a future where technology and human expertise work in tandem.

AI as a Job Creator, Not Just a Job Killer

IBM’s experience is part of a broader trend in the tech industry, where AI isn’t just replacing workers, but transforming the types of jobs available. Automation is most effective at handling routine, repetitive tasks, but it opens up opportunities for workers to focus on more strategic and innovative roles. This shift in job demands is not limited to IBM. Major tech players like Google and Spotify are also using AI to improve efficiency, yet they continue to hire for positions that require a human touch.

The impact on customer satisfaction is another unexpected benefit of automation. IBM’s AskHR platform processed over 11.5 million interactions in 2024, leading to a major improvement in customer satisfaction scores. The platform’s net promoter score (NPS) surged from -35 to +74, a dramatic jump that underscores the effectiveness of AI in handling customer inquiries. Still, despite its high success rate, 6% of requests still require human assistance, proving that AI, while powerful, cannot entirely replace the nuanced understanding and empathy that people provide.

Striking the Right Balance: Automation and Human Expertise

The ongoing transformation at IBM underscores the need for companies to carefully manage the balance between automation and human roles. While AI-driven technologies can greatly increase efficiency and cut costs, they also require companies to be strategic about how they integrate these tools into their workforce.

As Arvind Krishna pointed out, the automation strategy allowed IBM to invest more in areas that need human creativity and interaction, reinforcing that the future of work isn’t about eliminating people but reshaping the workforce to meet new demands.

This story of IBM shows how automation can both disrupt and create opportunities. As technology advances, businesses must be agile in adapting to the changes AI brings, while ensuring they continue to invest in human-driven areas where machines can’t yet compete.

Do Not Install These Apps On Your iPhone Or Android Phone

Here are the apps — if you have any on your phone, you should delete them.

Apple App Store:

X-VPN - Super VPN & Best Proxy

Ostrich VPN - Proxy Master

VPN Proxy Master - Super VPN

Turbo VPN Private Browser

VPNIFY - Unlimited VPN

VPN Proxy OvpnSpider

WireVPN - Fast VPN & Proxy

Now VPN - Best VPN Proxy

Speedy Quark VPN - VPN Proxy

Best VPN Proxy AppVPN

HulaVPN - Best Fast Secure VPN,

Wirevpn - Secure & Fast VPN

Pearl VPN

Google Play Store:

Turbo VPN - Secure VPN Proxy

VPN Proxy Master - Safer Vpn

X-VPN - Private Browser VPN

Speedy Quark VPN - VPN Master

vpnify - Unlimited VPN Proxy

Ostrich VPN - Proxy Unlimited

Snap VPN: Super Fast VPN Proxy

Signal Secure VPN - Robot VPN

VPN Proxy OvpnSpider

HulaVPN - Fast Secure VPN

VPN Proxy AppVPN

Several of the apps were linked to Qihoo 360,” a cybersecurity firm “sanctioned by the U.S. over its ties to China’s People’s Liberation Army.”

fear index

Test

Al tools

Lumalabs.ai

The last one is a very long-awaited 2D to 3D AI. It takes any set of photos of anything (objects, landscapes, people…) and turns them into ready-to-use, textured 3D models, with accuracy and quality that was never achieved before even with professional and costly 3D scanners.

Spellbook.legal

Spellbook will put many lawyers out of business because it’s the GPT3 model specifically trained on millions of legal documents. And the good thing, it will work inside your Microsoft Word, there is no need for a new platform to learn.

Clickable.so

Is building an automated ads generation platform, that lets you create brand-consistent, easy-to-use ads for any of your channels.

Debuild.app

Debuild promises to build an entire application just with prompts. Chatting with their AI will let you add details and more fine-grained features to your application. It’s a no-code tool with a completely new approach.

Scenario.gg is building a generative AI that will create game assets using prompting.

You basically will be able to upload your own training data: characters, props, vehicles, weapons, skins, buildings, concept art, pixel art, sketches, etc.

web3 and its cyber security implications

The Web 3.0 ecosystem is scaling exponentially, but it has also highlighted the inherent cybersecurity concerns that it imposes. There is an ongoing shift in the Internet’s architecture from a read/write model to a newer model known as Web 3.0. With Web 3.0, users and the community take ownership of the Internet instead of large and centralized corporations. Growing anti-big-tech sentiment and concerns about big tech’s ability to develop egalitarian platforms that behave in the best interests of their communities have contributed to its emergence.

Data breaches, input validation attacks, and social engineering defined the cybersecurity risk landscape of Web 2.0. With advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning accelerating at a breathtaking pace, the transition to Web 3.0 is on the horizon.

The World Wide Web has seen tremendous evolution since its inception. Enterprises globally are exploring the opportunities of Web 3.0 in their business processes. Along with the opportunities, Web 3.0 imposes various cybersecurity risks on an organization, which they need to detect and mitigate efficiently.

Some businesses are witnessing many transformations and digital revolution opportunities by embracing Web 3.0 in their workflow. But at the same time, it has become lucrative for cybercriminals to break into the IT infrastructure to create disruption. DevSecOps teams should consider developing a new robust ecosystem on Web 3.0 to keep sensitive data secure.

Web 3.0 is fundamentally concerned with enhancing and resolving problems associated with present centralized platform-mediated interactions. Avivah Litan, a Gartner analyst, described Web 3.0 as a “decentralized web” in which people are in charge of their data and identities. Trust verification, privacy protection, decentralized infrastructure and application platforms, and decentralized identities are all part of Web 3.0’s foundational technology.

At the heart of Web 3.0’s design, blockchain technology disallows any one person or organization to have complete control over an ecosystem because it is decentralized and can lead to enhanced robustness. Instead, the power to make decisions rests with all the users.

There is no governing body in Web 3.0, and blockchains are databases that hold documents while assuring security and transparency through algorithmic safeguards. Users’ data on Web 3.0 has been made opaque, and their identities have been removed from the data. As a result, consumers retain ownership of their data and can identify who has access to it and their level of access.

As data becomes more centralized, it becomes a target for hackers. With Web 3.0, data will be more distributed, making it harder for hackers to access. This will make data privacy and security even more important for businesses.

Web 3.0 is the next stage of the Internet, and it’s going to have a big impact on businesses. Businesses will need to adapt to a decentralized web, and data privacy and security will become even more important. Blockchain technology will also start to change the way we do business.

The coming of Web 3.0 will bring about many changes in how businesses are conducted. Perhaps most notable among these changes is an increased emphasis on data privacy and security. In addition, businesses will need to adapt their infrastructure to be compatible with decentralized technologies like blockchain.

Web 3.0 is an identity-native ecosystem of distributed applications in which users own their data and content. Users can authorize access to their data anonymously with smart contracts and defend against privacy risks. In addition, web applications can determine the privileges to grant to users or their eligibility to participate based on reputation metrics tied to their digital identities. With less reliance on centralized gatekeepers of information, such as big tech companies, there should be fewer high-profile data privacy breaches in a Web 3.0 world..

 

The Use Cases, Limitations and Potential of ENS Subdomains

TL;DR:

1. Web3 subdomain names like ENS’s have a variety of use cases, chief among which is enabling users to show they are affiliated with a company or a community.
2. There is already plenty of adoption and we investigated basically all of the projects that have started using subdomains in some form or another.
3. There are some current limitations but these are currently being addressed with new projects in the space by a variety of players in the ecosystem.

What’s in a Name? 

My ENS name is olesnakey.eth. It’s derived from my handle, OleSnakey, that I use for games, Discord, Twitter, and pretty much everything else in web2 since I was in 5th grade. It’s named after an old Gmail feature called “Old Snakey” where you can press Shift+7 in your inbox to play a simple game of Snake, which I often did when I didn’t feel like doing anything else. It’s not a good name by any measure. It’s goofy, long, sometimes tricky to pronounce/spell, and some people absolutely despise snakes for whatever reason. That said, I’ve used it for so long that it’s basically become a part of me, and that’s why I’m proud to use it for web3.

Ahhh, nostalgia…

There is something special about names that differentiates ENS and other name service collections from other NFTs that are traded. Sure, some people may see using rare ENS names as just a financial flex but they forget that these domain names are fundamentally, well, names. And a name, whether they are a given name, nickname or gamer handle, is just a piece of language that identifies some individual. It also has the potential to communicate so much about that individual’s history, values, personality or affiliations. After all, it’s a safe (but not sure) bet someone has some Japanese ancestry if their last name is “Watanabe”. As we see with PFP based communities, this “affiliation utility” is a native property that NFT ownership can provide, but as we will explore in the report, ENS has an sometimes overlooked feature, subdomains, that can excel at this.

What are ENS Subdomains?

Once someone has created or obtained a second level ENS domain name(take for instance, olesnakey.eth), they have the ability to create as many subdomains under it as they wish (like 2cents.olesnakey.eth ), paying only gas for the transaction. Then they are free to assign them to whoever wants to use them to point them to ETH addresses. However, as of now, the controller also has the right to revoke access to these subdomain names, if they so choose.

As we will get into in this article, there are a variety of interesting use cases for this, some more intuitive than others. This feature might seem gimmicky and inconsequential to some at first, but here at Double, we see the adoption of subdomains as a potential major defining trend for ENS and other web3 name services as a whole, so we were compelled to research this topic extensively. Through that research, we have produced this report, we will look at the adoption of, use cases, current limitations, on-going development, and future potential of ENS subdomains.

main for show, 2cents for mirror.xyz, degen for sus minting / contracts

By the Numbers: A Snapshot of the Adoption of ENS and it’s Subdomains

ENS Names

By every metric, ENS names are a top NFT collection. At the time of writing, on OpenSea, it is closing in on half a million owners and almost 50K ETH in total volume. Of course, it is still not without its competitors. Unstoppable Domains boasts a web3 name service without any renewal fees and there are also plenty of other ecosystem specific name services like Avvy’s .avax names for Avalanche and Bonfida’s Solana Name Service.

ENS Subdomains

As of the time of writing this article, there are currently roughly 1.9 million second level domains created. However, by comparison, there are only about 155K subdomains registered under second level domains. These all originate from 13K second level domains.

At the time we looked, there were only 69 domain names that have more than 50 subdomains under them. It’s these that we are interested in because many of these subdomains represent projects that are early adopters of subdomains.

Who is Using Subdomain Names Now?

We investigated the projects behind the domain names with 50+ subdomains and group similar ones into categories.

Here is our full list of projects that we investigated.

Our Categories:

1. Wallet and Infrastructure Projects

Example: Argent (argent.xyz)

Crypto wallets recognize that having their users copying and pasting public addresses when they want to make transactions is…not very user friendly because of the hassle and room for error. Because it’s reasonably cheap to provide their users with subdomains (just pay gas!), many of them do, from automatically creating one for the user upon registration to having it be a feature of the wallet.

2. Project Community / Organization

Example: Decentraland(dcl.eth)

Subdomains are useful for metaverse projects, holder communities and games because they can provide a sense of identity and affiliation. olesnakey.eth might be Jesse but olesnakey.dcl.eth would express how Jesse is affiliated with Decentraland. For games and metaverses, these names can also double as gamer tags or handles that show you play a certain game, just like they do for gamers like me in web2. For organizations, if access to these subdomain names is properly controlled, they can also be a source of verification. For example, BDs for projects can show they are legitimately affiliated with the project with a subdomain name issued by the organization they work for.

3. On-Chain Tools

Example: Chainlink (data.eth)

For developers, subdomains can be used to create API’s that point to contracts that provide information or services. This is superior to public addresses because it’s more convenient for the dev using the product and the service can freely upgrade to a new contract without forcing the people using the service to update as well, since you can just point the subdomain to the new contract.

4. Wordplay

Example: asksfor.eth

There are a lot of creative names that read like sentences you can make with ENS subdomains. For example, jesse.asksfor.eth (plz sir, may I have some moar?). Names in this category can form sentences in this nifty fashion but they don’t have to, they could just look nice, like dev.eth, if you are a developer.

5. Subdomain Registrars

Example: EthSimple (ethsimple.eth)

This category also includes names that are held in Domain Registrar type projects like ENSnow or EthSimple, where the name is held by a contract and anyone can use the service to mint their own subdomain on it for much cheaper than it would cost to register their own second-level domain. It’s also worth noting that there is a lot of overlap between these and the Wordplay category, because many of them will buy up these names and have them listed on the platform so anyone can claim them.

6. Other

Example: Crypto Stamp (cryptostamp.eth)

Not all projects that make use of subdomains fit in those five neat categories so this category is the catch-all for the rest of the pile. There are some unique projects and experiments in here like eth2phone (eth2phone.eth), and also some that we just couldn’t find any information about or figure out exactly how they use their subdomains.

Notable Projects:

1. Argent Wallet (argent.xyz)

Argent.xyz is the project with the highest number of registered subdomains. Like we’ve already covered, subdomain names are especially useful for wallets but argent takes it one step further by adding additional utility. XXX.argent.xyz is actually a valid URL, and argent takes advantage of this by having the subdomain also link to the Argent profile page in web2 along with being the address to the wallet, which has a number of UX benefits.

2. Decentraland (dcl.eth)

Decentraland names showcase the potential of subdomain names to function as domain names once they are made tradable and users are able to register them by themselves. The DCL dev team made it possible, for the price of 100 MANA, to mint their own name on the DCL second level domain. These have become a hotly traded collection in their own right, with a total volume of nearly 1000 ETH on OpenSea. These names also scratch the surface of what you can do with subdomain names in metaverse projects such as using them as teleport addresses to locations or avatars.

3. Mirror.xyz (mirror.xyz)

As the web3 take on platforms such as Medium, Mirror is unique because unlike many other projects on the list, its subdomains are not designed to be publicly available or easily obtainable through purchase. The subdomains can only be acquired with a $WRITE token which is bestowed by a DAO vote after a weekly writing competition. This subdomain is used to recognize someone as a member of the mirror DAO and gain corresponding privileges and responsibilities such as voting. Mirror showcases how the scarcity of names can be engineered rather than naturally forming. After all, unlike the 000.eth-999.eth 1K club, There is no mathematical limit to how many subdomains mirror.xyz has, but there is a practical scarcity of how many people can join the DAO, and so these subdomains can be just as valuable as status symbols.

4. Purrnelopes Country Club (pcc.xyz)

PCC’s subdomain offering is a prime example in how they can provide utility to holder communities. Since these communities are essentially the web3 equivalent of sports teams, you need ways to express your affinity: the new forms of T-shirts, keychains and merch. Using subdomains as your wallet/Twitter name is just that.

Wen Purrnelope’s Football Team?

Utility of Subdomains, Generalized

1. All the properties of ENS second level domains (Wallet Routing, Status)

Everything that is valuable about second level domain names can be valuable for subdomain names. Yes, it’s worth remembering they still can replace an inscrutable ETH address with a human readable one in crypto transactions. But it’s also worth pointing out that rare ENS names have the NFT property of scarcity and status. Rare and impressive ENS names are collected and traded just like any other NFT and once subdomains are more widely adopted, why would they be any different? Imagine if BAYC launches a campaign where whitelisted holders can mint their own subdomain name on ape.eth. If those were tradable, what would be the market value for those names?

2. Affiliation

Subdomains can also provide the NFT utility of showing that you are affiliated with a group, project, game or organization. Arguably, they can do this even better than second level domains. Getting tribal tattoos, Decorating with national flags and holding certain NFTs all serve the function of signaling that you belong in a certain in-group and second level domains excel at this because they show that you are a part of a group in a very explicit fashion. This group can be any group of people: organizations, sports team fans or even families. These communities also gain the ability to whitelist users more effectively or even confer privileges based on the addresses the subdomains point to. They will even be able to white list who can register a subdomain based on conditions like whether an address is a NFT holder or not.

3. Linking

Sure, all ENS subdomains can link to eth addresses, but there is no reason for that to stop there. As we see with argent.xyz, some are capable of linking to web2 addresses as well. However, in metaverses/games like Decentraland, they can not only serve as the handle, but they also have the potential to be configured to point to certain locations, locations of avatars in the world or programmed to do literally anything else in the ecosystem or game.

4. Just plain cheaper!

Depending on the price of Ethereum and gas, registering a ENS second level domain can be prohibitively expensive for some. Second-Level domains, on the other hand, are significantly cheaper, with a cost dependent only on gas. Because these subdomains are so much cheaper than second level names, the mass adoption of subdomains can be a driver of the mass adoption of ENS, Ethereum and web3 as a whole.

Current Limitations

1. Gas Intensive

It’s worth noting that, each time a subdomain is created, it’s an on-chain transaction that costs gas. This is usually negligible but for some of the use cases, there could be thousands of users and community members registering subdomains, so, depending on the gas price, the costs can add up for either users or the project.

2. Revocable

In the way ENS subdomains are set up now by default, they are not technically owned by their users as property. At any point, the owner of the second level domain can revoke access to it. While this may be a benefit for some projects who wish to maintain maximum control of their subdomain names, many users are not comfortable with this. After all, why would you pay for something that can just be taken away?

3. Not Tradable By Default

As of now, if a project wants their subdomains tradable, they have to do custom coding, like the Decentraland team did for the dcl.eth subdomains. Many projects want their subdomains tradable, but not all can spare the development time, which makes ENS subdomains underutilized.

4. Custom Coding Needed for Self Service

One is able to manually create and delegate subdomains through the ENS User Interface but as of now, there is no standard way for users of a project to register subdomains by themselves, it must be custom built by the project, like Decentraland and PCC. If projects wish to adopt subdomains for their users, this, again presents the additional cost in the form of developer time.

Upcoming Development

1. ENS Namewrapper

ENS’s upcoming Name Wrapper feature will make subdomains more like second level domains — as tradable NFTs. Wrapped names are ERC-1155 compatible and with a new feature called fuses, permissions to to control usage and ownership rights, like being able to transfer and make sub-sub-domains can be better customized and controlled. As ERC-1155 tokens, main domains and subdomains will also become tradable as well in the same collection.

2. Coinbase’s cb.id Subdomain System

Coinbase is working on a layer 2 domain name system for its users built on top of ENS. Once it’s launched, because the company has roughly 98 million users, it may become the largest adopter of subdomains. The logic is the same as it is for all wallets/infrastructure projects we’ve already examined: give users human readable subdomains because it enhances the user experience by making it more convenient to send funds.

3. Double’s Subdomain Subscription (Shameless Shilling Alert!)

We’ve recently launched our own subdomain product: Double’s Subdomains-as-a-Service, which enables projects to give subdomains to their users in a few clicks. All the ENS holder has to do is stake the ENS second level domain name on the contract, then select whether anyone can register a subdomain on it or just limit it to a whitelist. They will even be able to earn royalties from the number of subdomains registered and renewed.

What can you do with subdomains? (By Context)

Web3 Communities

Members of web3 communities generally show affiliation by owning NFTs in the same collection and using it as their profile pictures. Using subdomain names of the same second level domain can also be a way to express affiliation. Access to these domain names entirely depends on the identity of the community: exclusive ones would be inclined to use a whitelist for their names, while more open ones would likely seek to allow anyone to be able to register a subdomain name.

DAOs

One potential form of manipulation that DAOs have to be aware of is the possibility of someone taking out a massive loan of the token being used for governance ahead of the snapshot and leveraging it for voting. The use of subdomain names can be an alternative system for DAOs, as their acquisition can be better controlled with a whitelist (and presumably a vetting process for getting on it). It could also be argued that this is more democratic, as it’s no longer the opinion of the people with the most tokens with the most weight — rather, all with a subdomain would become equal when it comes to voting rights.

GameFi Guilds

In web2, guilds in MMOs are originally a source of affiliation within the game, leading to real personal relationships and vibrant communities. Web3 guilds have adopted the name of “guild” but they also have potential to provide that “affiliation utility” native to MMORPG guilds like say in, ahem, Guild Wars 2.

Metaverse / Gamer Name

GameFi games are also able to take advantage of the subdomains to have them represent the username of the players within the game. They are also able to implement additional features for the names within the game itself, such as enabling users to point them at different locations in the game. For example, say you want to teleport to a specific home in a metaverse platform, if the owner of the home has a second level domain name pointing to it, you could use that as the teleport address as well, and even send tokens to that address when making purchases!

Subscription Services

Because ENS domain and subdomain names are fundamentally subscriptions, they can be used to power other subscription products. As subdomains naturally expire if not renewed, ownership of the subdomain can potentially be used as an access token to a product or service.

Companies

Companies may wish to issue subdomain names to their employees. This is not only to foster a sense of affiliation that has been stressed to death in this report so far, it can also be a proof of legitimacy. How do you know if someone reaching out to you is actually Ryan, a business developer from OpenSea and not an impostor trying to scam you and your team? You could have him produce a signature with a wallet with ryan.opensea.eth.

Conclusion

As we’ve explored in this article, subdomains have so much potential value and use cases spanning almost the entirety of web3. Personally, sure, I’m happy with my janky olesnakey.eth as my main name in the Ethereum ecosystem but also I’m looking forward to picking up a few olesnakey.future-web3-game-im-obssessed-with.eth’s and olesnakey.this-shows-i-am-a-member-of-this-community.eth subdomain names as well.

Affiliation has been the glue that has built and holds together all of human society. Before there were discord channels built around NFT hodlers using their JPEG profile pictures, there were sports teams. Before there were sports teams, there were nation states. Before there were nation states, there were tribes. Before there were tribes, there were families. In web3 we are just seeing this force take a new form and subdomains are yet another way to express it.

Shopee 衰落幕后

Shopee 衰落幕后：一家最像中国大厂的东南亚巨头的全球化乱局

当一家东南亚互联网公司，像极了一家中国互联网大厂，会发生什么？

对于新加坡互联网集团SEA旗下的明星公司Shopee来说，一开始，这意味着疯狂的增长。

由华人企业家李小冬创办于2015年的SEA，从创始人背景，到商业模式，再到融资历程，都沿袭着中国互联网公司的道路，更曾因腾讯的入股而被称为“新加坡小腾讯”。

旗下明星电商公司Shopee，更是在东南亚大杀四方，在多个市场压制阿里旗下的Lazada。彼时两者的竞争也因背后中国巨头的存在，而被国内互联网圈密切关注。以至于，在近两年中国互联网人才涌入新加坡的浪潮中，Shopee成了他们最热门的目的地。

这些中国元素的影子助它快速成为新加坡第一家估值超过10亿美元、赴美IPO四年后总市值一度逼近2000亿美元、并同期开启全球化扩张的东南亚超级公司。SEA集团一度跃升为亚洲第三大互联网公司，其创始人李小冬也曾凭此跻身新加坡首富。

然而，就在它正在进一步变成一家“东南亚最像中国互联网大厂的超级公司”的时候，问题出现了。

从外部来看，过去近一年时间里，SEA集团股价暴跌超81%、大股东腾讯减持SEA、印度市场以数据安全为由封禁Shopee及SEA的游戏产品Free Fire，且过去几个月中，Shopee又相继关闭了多个海外站点。

而更大的动荡来自内部。

据品玩和多位接近Shopee核心决策层的人士交流，这家公司正经历着组织危机、管理路线之争以及无解的增长困局——它正在自己“卷”自己，并由此陷入一系列的问题。

事实上，Shopee曾被许多有全球化野心的中国公司视为标杆，被称为“born to be global”的骄子。

它所代表的模式——总部在新加坡，人才在中国，业务在全球，是一种越来越被新一代中国企业家们所追捧的状态，这种结构在字节跳动、SHEIN、米哈游等有全球化野心的中国明星公司身上都能看到。

还原这家新加坡明星公司“内卷”的内幕，也许会让这些中国全球化公司们，有一些新的思考。

01 | 文化冲突

中国高管空降，新加坡员工皱起眉头。

2021年3月，Shopee内部召开了一次看似普通寻常，在后来看却是这家全球化公司转折里程碑式的Town Hall Meeting。

在这场Town Hall Meeting中，Shopee例行出席的高管层除了CEO冯陟旻（Chris Feng）与CPO陈静业（David Chen)之外，多了一位新上任的深圳CTO黄易成。

据公开资料显示，黄易成本科就读于复旦大学，后在新加坡国立大学取得博士学位，于2017年加入SEA Group（冬海集团）旗下的游戏公司Garena，后转岗到电商平台Shopee。

数位Shopee员工向品玩如此形容这位中国CTO：有城府有手段，掌控欲很强，虽然教育和职业背景比较国际化，但内心非常信奉儒释道文化，经常不避讳地表达犀利观点。

一个令多数Shopee员工记忆深刻的例子是，在黄易成首次作为CTO出席的Town Hall Meeting上，有技术人员向他反映组内加班强度太大，动辄要到晚上9:30甚至半夜才能结束工作，这与全球化企业崇尚的work life balance文化并不相符。然而这位新任高管并没有询问该员工所在组的具体情况，反倒当众表示：

“9点半下班很晚吗”。

“我不理解为什么7点就能做完的工作，非要拖到那么晚下班，真有那么多事情可以做吗？”一位Shopee员工告诉品玩，黄易成此番言论在海外员工间引起了强烈的不满情绪。

新加坡员工们的反弹并没有阻碍这样的文化冲突继续发生。甚至，这种冲突延伸到了公司制度层面。

“黄易成上任后做的第一件大事是引入了字节跳动的OKR体系。当时他拉着我们所有中层领导开了个会，当场拿出OKR，说我们现在要向字节学习。”一位前Shopee员工说。

据品玩了解，Shopee的OKR与绩效考核的绑定关系十分频繁密切，以季度为单位进行OKR制定，每个季度都会进行一次绩效考核，加上年末的总考核，全年共有5次考核。

一位在调整过程中离职的新加坡技术高管表示，Shopee国内团队牵头实行的OKR制度里，技术团队每个季度都要花费近一个月的时间，反复与中国高层们确认对齐OKR，但刚搭建起来的中国团队对OKR目标的制定和执行又缺少连贯性，常常上个季度定下来的方向，下个季度就会被和盘推翻。

除了OKR制度之外，Shopee新加坡管理层也被要求每两周以书面报告的形式，向中国管理团队进行思想汇报，有些人的双周报字数多达一万多字。

卷起来了。

首先表达反对的还是新加坡总部的基层员工。他们表示，令他们困惑的是，这套从天而降的OKR制度仅以几张表格的形式通知执行，并没有推出相应的衡量标准。

“我能理解公司规模变大后需要有统一的绩效考核体系，这也是激励员工的一种方式，但Shopee的OKR衡量标准完全由管理层主观臆断，这就变成了控制人的手段了”，Shopee新加坡的一线技术人员说。

事实上，Shopee这家公司对于这种借鉴中国互联网经验的做法并不陌生，甚至是有其独特的传统的。

据公开资料，SEA的创始人李小冬出生于中国天津、毕业于上海交通大学，创业前曾就职于摩托罗拉和康宁。李小冬留给外界的印象是性格偏内向，即使成名后也鲜少出现在公众面前。

他是第一批真正意义上借助中国互联网经验在海外市场成功实现本地化的企业家。无论是他打造的“东南亚小腾讯Garena”，还是“东南亚阿里Shopee”，其背后都有着鲜明的中国互联网特色。

在创业早期，李小冬利用曾备受中国互联网推崇的地推模式，组建了一支强大的业务地推军，并在东南亚形成了一张超过7万个节点的关系网。

但更重要的是，李小冬把这些经验和本地化相结合。多位Shopee员工表示，李小冬对本地化高度重视，这形成了SEA的全球化基因，也让Shopee在拓展海外市场时，带着天然的本地化运营思维。

比如，它在每个市场中都根据当地不同的情况灵活地推出符合其特色的App，并借此在多个东南亚市场的占有率上一度击败Lazada。

这样的背景，决定了这位中国出身的创始人在公司遇到增长瓶颈时，很自然的会选择向中国互联网公司寻找答案。但这一次，Shopee开始遇到了逆向本地化问题，文化差异与管理模式造成的动荡，开始对这家全球化公司的企业氛围与业务发展产生冲击。

OKR就是一个例子。在新加坡员工眼里，这套制度更多开始变成人事斗争的工具。

在Shopee的OKR评价体系中，分为ABC三个等级，被打了C的员工面临着限制转岗、降薪，甚至被劝退的结果，上述前新加坡技术高管也因被打C而选择了离职。

新的制度上线很快，据接近高层的人士透露，黄易成上任后还组建了一个技术委员会，职责之一是处理新加坡和中国技术人员的晋升申请，但10人的技术委员会中8个是空降的中国管理层，多数入职不超过两个月。

“有去晋升答辩的资深技术人员，被问的第一个问题居然是——你这个项目是做啥的”。

“过去一年里新加坡团队的离职率非常高，我带的团队离职率超过30%，中层离职转岗的更多，管理层基本上都换了一遍血”，就Shopee核心业务团队转移中发生的人事动荡，多位员工表示虽然能理解“一朝天子一朝臣”，但整个过程做的“非常不体面”、“完全有更合理的解决方式”。

这种“不体面”的一个具体事例是，在黄易成想更换另一位新加坡技术高层时，这位中国高管无所顾忌地当面对其说“你的时代结束了”，而该技术高层反问劝退理由时，得到的回复是：

反正你的团队已经没人了。

02 | 权力转移

一旦出现了“你我”之分，文化冲突就不只是文化冲突，公司不同势力开始各自为战，中国团队与新加坡团队分化越来越严重。

在这期间举行的Town Hall Meeting中，不止一个新加坡员工、不止一次地问过“新加坡团队的未来在哪里”。在频频空降中国管理层、新加坡团队不断收缩的现实中，CEO冯陟旻和CPO陈静业也只能含糊其辞地表示“新加坡还在招人”。

“事实是我们看到的新同事非常少，招聘的速度也慢了很多。”不仅研发，离职转岗的产品经理也不在少数，“我刚来一年多，产品换了不知道多少拨人了”。

同期，Shopee持续扩张的全球化业务，对平台自身的产品技术提出了更高的要求。

这种话语权转移已经很明显了：多位Shopee员工表示，继新加坡团队完成了Shopee从0到1的搭建后，中国团队被寄予了Shopee从1到10的期望，而这副重担显然要由深圳新高管黄易成挑起。

面对新加坡员工和中国员工的争吵，Shopee事实上选择了对权力中心进行转移，核心业务团队开始由总部新加坡向中国进行一场大转移。

多位新加坡Shopee员工向品玩证实，自2021年3月开始，Shopee新加坡团队整体向中国团队交权，技术项目重心大批迁移至深圳，管理层架构主体也几乎被中国高管接手，新加坡团队的众多管理层和业务骨干或转岗或离职。

一位Shopee新加坡基层技术人员对这场大转移的描述是：开始时有些摸不到头脑，看明白后觉得就是核心团队大转移。

据这位员工讲述，他所在的研发组是最先被“开刀”的，也许是Shopee高层不希望在转移初期造成太大影响，于是表面上以中国企业常用的内部赛马机制，招募了一个与该员工小组业务定位和工作内容上几近相同的团队。

“后来发现并不是内部赛马，新成立的研发组manager开始或明或暗地抢人，我们组比较资深的技术骨干基本都被聊了个遍，慢慢地我们组原来的manager选择了转岗，之后两个组就顺理成章地合并了。”

据知情人士称，在过去一年多的时间里，原属于新加坡团队主导的业务线大多改成直接向黄易成汇报。同时，黄易成也开始在国内招兵买马，众多具有中国互联网大厂背景的中层管理者空降至Shopee深圳团队，并各自继续在国内扩张。

2021年Shopee在中国的招聘热潮是互联网圈有目共睹的，国内各大求职平台都充斥着这家东南亚小巨头的招聘信息，而就Shopee面经的讨论、Offer的对比，以及对全球化公司的遐想与憧憬，也遍布在国内互联网论坛中。

有知情人士透露，除了校招与普通社招需要的执行层人才外，Shopee对中国互联网大厂的资深研发更是一掷千金地猛挖墙脚，阿里P7级别的技术人才在国内正常年薪浮动是在60万至150万之间，但在Shopee却能拿到年薪220万的Offer。

多位Shopee员工表示，经过这番大规模的核心业务团队转移后，Shopee在深圳的员工体量大约有4000多人，新加坡的员工体量约1000多人。

而两边团队的员工比例在2021年3月之前是基本持平的，且早期员工称Shopee创办最初几年里深圳研发中心人少的可怜，平台从0到1的技术底层搭建、迭代、维护，都是由新加坡团队主力完成的。

“中国团队的规模还在继续扩大，在深圳与新加坡员工4:1的基础上，决策层还希望在北京建立Shopee的另一个大本营，预计规模会跟Shopee深圳一样大。”一位接近Shopee决策层的人士告诉品玩。

这形成了一个很有意思的现象——当一众中国公司在把全球化业务向新加坡转移，并优先选择外籍高管来掌管这些业务的同时，这家在许多中国公司看起来有先天优势的“新加坡公司”，却从组织到文化都越来越中国大厂化。

新加坡本身究竟适不适合诞生全球化的企业，成了很多人新的反思。

“新加坡这边招人确实非常难，公司的发展速度又很快，无论是招人的成本还是效率，国内都比新加坡好很多。”一位Shopee的早期员工向品玩描述，他2018年入职时，SEA集团即便已跻身东南亚科技小巨头之列，但仅从技术层面来看，水平勉强能与国内二线互联网公司持平。

事实上，很多在东南亚成功的所谓新加坡公司，最初都不是从新加坡起家。比如，网约车与外卖平台Grab虽于2020年将全部总部迁至新加坡，但实则创办于马来西亚；

而Tokopedia和Gojek则诞生在东南亚最大的市场印尼，并于2021年合并为GoTo，成为Grab最强劲的竞争对手。而李小冬的中国背景，让Shopee选择中国互联网大厂化的路径。但这带来的“国际化”的挑战看起来比其他路线多很多。

“我其实隐约地感觉到未来Shopee的业务核心团队可能会转向中国，只是没想到这么快。”在这位员工看来，全球疫情爆发带来的电商风口，让Shopee的发展远超预期，也无形中成为了核心业务团队向中国转移的催化剂。

财报数据显示，2020年Shopee的总GMV达到354亿美元，同比增长101.1%；总订单数达到28亿，同比增长132.8%。而在2021年第一季度，Shopee仍保持着强势的增长势头，GMV达到126亿美元，同比增长103.2%；总订单数达到11亿，同比增长153%。

在这样的变化中，Shopee在不少员工眼里，成了一家事实上的中国公司。

03 | 破灭的全球化美梦

但好景不长，这种疫情初期的GMV增长很快结束，而Shopee却已陷入内部人事斗争与业务问题拉扯，进一步让它来不及调整。

2021年是Shopee大肆扩张全球市场的一年，在原有东南亚和巴西等优势业务基础上，开拓了墨西哥、阿根廷、哥伦比亚、智利、法国、西班牙、印度等多个新站点。

但短期内同时进军多个海外市场，实则给Shopee带来了巨大的资金压力，其母公司SEA集团也多次在财报电话会议中提及“将更多关注盈利能力”。

从SEA集团的收入构成来看，其三大主要业务分别是游戏、电商，以及数字金融，其中游戏（Garena）是电商（Shopee）自创办以来的主要现金牛，为其全球化扩张提供了强有力的资金保障。SEA集团2021年企业总市值曾逼近2000亿美元。

然而，2021年第三季度，这样的“互补”模式开始出问题：通过游戏业务作为现金流造血，供给电商业务在全球的大额补贴和高性价比策略模式，在后者的严重亏损下变得不再成立。

其游戏业务产品线单薄老化、自研游戏业务进展缓慢，流水增速已从65%降至29%，不足以支撑亏损严重的Shopee电商业务。

股价开始下跌。2021年三季度财报发布后，也是Shopee刚宣布进军欧洲市场之时，SEA的股价一路从最高点372美元跌至现在的80美元，蒸发近80%。

“外部大环境不好是前提，但公司站在高点时的盲目自信和不加节制的扩张，也是开始走下坡路的主要原因”，多个Shopee员工在谈及过去一年多的公司发展情况时，表示2021年的扩张步子迈得太大，连内部员工都能感觉到策略上的激进和缺乏大局观。

一位曾负责过Shopee数据中台的前核心技术成员透露，Shopee增速放缓内部来看早有迹象，2021年之前扩张一个新市场能让大盘流量直接翻倍，而后来虽然扩张市场数量变多了，但流量增长连50%都不到，“隐约有种增长到顶了的感觉”。 

在这样的挑战下，许多Shopee新加坡员工把问题再次归结于中国元素的增多。

“现在Shopee已经看不到什么国际化的影子了。核心业务团队转移后，甚至有人提出「我们没必要说英文」，跟海外团队开会的时候基本也都用中文，很多东南亚同事听不懂，解决的办法是会后再将记录翻译成英文。”

一位新加坡Shopee老员工对品玩说，公司早年间很注重内部多元的文化与氛围，这也令海外员工感到十分舒适、融入感很强，“现在Diversity已经被杀死了”。

此外，还有不少新加坡员工指责，这样的变化也破坏了曾经的扁平化沟通机制。

据多位内部人士透露，Shopee内部的组织架构不再如早期那般扁平化，以往一线技术人员直线汇报关系两层就能到达CTO，而现在变得层级繁琐森严，底层员工甚至看不到所在业务线的完整汇报关系。

有员工曾指出过这点，公司也因此曾设立了一个由下而上的反馈机制（Feedback Cultrue)，新加坡办公室里各处贴着反馈系统的二维码，鼓励员工填写建议和想法。

“更多就是形式主义，我反馈了几次都没有得到解决，久而久之也没什么热情了。”一位新加坡员工表示，当由下而上的反馈机制形同虚设后，“我们对公司的认同感和归属感也没那么强了”。

久而久之，身处一线的员工们有了一种活在“真空层”中的感觉，公司决策层与他们的距离越来越远，虽然Town Hall Meeting仍在正常举行，但少了“发现问题、提出问题、解决问题”的沟通氛围。

“我能直观感受到的是，早些年我们人少规模小，的确一直存在线上技术问题，但改制后引进了那么多人才，规模也扩张了，技术问题却一点也没减少。”

一位Shopee新加坡员工告诉品玩，公司的技术人员都能通过一个系统看到整个产品每天的线上事故情况，就他近期观察来看，公司几乎每天都有P0/P1级事故爆发。

“这种大事故一天一个，有时候一天两个，但老板们似乎也不在乎，真的是

有Shopee员工甚至提出更严重的指控：

一名熟悉技术情况的人士称，他所在的小组由中国团队接手管理后，新来的技术负责人不仅带来了一批自己在前公司的下属，还把前公司的技术代码大批地搬过来用，“这些代码还被丢给我们老员工修改，里面的细则和注释有很多原公司的信息，我们看来这是很严肃的抄代码事件”。

Shopee另一个技术线的新加坡前负责人也有相似的指责。

“当时有个分布式存储相关的项目，中国团队那边称从腾讯挖来了个大牛，一年之内就能把这个做出来。我们搞这行的一听就知道不可能，除非你就是拿人家的代码直接过来跑”。他表示怀疑。

多位Shopee员工表示，由于缺少对Shopee产品的了解，加之直接复用其他公司技术造成的线上bug，让本就不太稳定的平台系统问题频出，往往执行不过一个季度，就变得不了了之。

“可能管理层们正忙着通过权力斗争坐稳自己的位置，先做到跟公司深度绑定，业务问题可以慢慢解决。”有员工如此猜测道。

对于Shopee和SEA集团来说，是否能够重新找到中国基因与全球化基因之间的平衡点，将成为其下一阶段发展的决定性因素。更具体来说，Shopee当下应该关注的是如何定义新加坡团队对业务和公司发展的意义。

据Shopee一位新加坡员工透露，新加坡团队今年开始实行Hot Desk制度，当地所有员工不再有固定的工位，上班之前需要通过系统进行工位预约。虽然工位预约制在全球化公司中早有先例，但Shopee的这项制度并没有在中国团队实行，公司给到新加坡员工的解释是“工位不够用了”。

“不理解为什么实行这个制度，原来每个组的人都会坐在一起，讨论项目和工作非常方便，实行之后大家坐的就分散了。”一位新加坡员工说，这项制度带来的直观感受是公司没钱了，想得更极端些就是变相的收缩中国以外团队规模。

这些种种不理解，都在提示着那些对新加坡趋之若鹜的中国企业家：一家生于新加坡的互联网公司，在中国元素增多后尚且无法处理这种平衡，那些“外来”的中国公司要如何应对这个问题？

近来Shopee向外界传来的坏消息更是一个接一个。

先是年初腾讯宣布减持其母公司SEA集团的股票，当日SEA集团股价下跌超11%；2月14日，印度以数据安全为由封禁了Shopee以及SEA集团在当地备受欢迎的游戏Free Fire，封禁令公布后SEA集团随即迎来超20%的股价大跌；3月份开始，Shopee相继关闭了印度、法国、西班牙等国家站。

而在过去没多久的6月份，Shopee内部又爆发了裁员计划，优化团队涉及Shopee墨西哥、阿根廷、智利在内的多个团队。

Shopee的内部裁员也于近日蔓延至中国团队，互联网论坛中越来越频繁看到深圳研发团队员工发出的相关信息，虽未明确裁员涉及的具体条线，但发文屡屡提及“整个组解散”、“业务整体裁撤”。

“我们预测今年底明年初，还会爆发一波老员工离职潮，因为2018/2019年入职的人很多因为股票没到期所以选择按兵不动。”一位新加坡员工说。

“以Shopee现在这个样子根本留不住人了。”