趣头条刘先锋：三四线城市有很大增长空间 将扩大招聘规模 – Tencent Tech
What happened: Content aggregator Qutoutiao plans to add 2,000 employees in 2019, composed of 60% technical personnel and 40% operations and sales staff, Tencent Tech reported, citing Qutoutiao’s chief human officer (CHO) Liu Xianfeng. According to Liu, the company needs to maintain fast growth to catch up with top-tier internet companies and maintain its market position, which is why it is increasing its team size amidst waves of layoffs in the industry. Qutoutiao will also offer 600 million shares to its employees as incentives during the year.
Why it’s important: While the new hires could help Qutoutiao become a stronger rival to Bytedance’s Jinri Toutiao, they are also likely to increase the company’s already significant losses. In 2018, Qutoutiao’s net losses surged nearly 21 times year-on-year and user acquisition costs increased seven-fold. Earlier this month, the company went back to the capital markets to raise around $45 million, just seven months after it went public on Nasdaq.