Chinese online grocer Dingdong Maicai is planning sweeping job cuts that will affect several business units of the company, according to Chinese media outlet Sina Tech. The reported workforce cuts will impact different departments, with the procurement team facing the largest reduction in the number of posts to just 50% of its current workforce, followed by a 30% cut for the algorithm unit, 30% for the operations team, and 10-20% for the firm’s recruitment arm. Dingdong’s headcount has already shrunk by around 10,000 compared with its peak, the report cites an employee of company as saying. The Beijing-based firm recorded a RMB 2.01 billion ($320 million) net loss in the third quarter of last year, more than doubling its RMB 828.6 million net loss over the same period of 2020. [Sina Tech, in Chinese]

Meicai, a Chinese app that supplies farm-to-table produce for restaurants, is starting a new round of layoffs which will affect around 40% of the company’s workforce, Chinese media outlet iFeng reported on Wednesday. The reported job cuts come just five months after a previous round of redundancies in September when the company cut at least half of its employees across several teams. The current adjustment is reportedly in preparation for a Hong Kong IPO aimed at raising $300-500 million in the first half of this year. The Beijing-based company shelved a US IPO plan last July as Beijing tightened restrictions on overseas listings for Chinese firms. [iFeng, in Chinese]

Xpeng Motors has increased prices for all three of its available electric vehicle (EV) models, days after the Chinese government announced further cuts to existing subsidies for EV purchases on Dec. 31. The price bumps bring the cost of the P5 600P, the most expensive version of Xpeng’s second sedan model, to RMB 229,300 from RMB 223,900. For its premium sedan P7, the new price tags reflect an increase of up to RMB 5,900. Earlier this month, Tesla and Volkswagen also raised prices for their EVs in China to offset the subsidy cuts. [Sina Finance, in Chinese]

WeCom, the corporate communication and office tool created by Tencent’s WeChat team, has released figures showing that it currently has more than 180 million daily active users, up from 130 million at the end of 2020. The app’s enterprise clients nearly doubled from 5.5 million to 10 million during the same period. WeCom can also be used as a mini program within WeChat, potentially giving it a user base of more than 500 million via China’s ubiquitous messaging app. WeCom, formerly WeChat Work, faces competition from other Slack-like tools in China such as Alibaba’s DingTalk and ByteDance’s Lark. [Caijing, in Chinese]

Geely’s premium electric mobility brand Zeekr has set itself a goal of delivering 70,000 vehicles this year with plans to begin exporting its first offering – the model 001 – to Europe early next year, company sources told state-owned financial media CLS on Monday. Zeekr is also reportedly pursuing a long-term shipment goal of 100,000 vehicles in the overseas market in 2025, around 15% of its annual sales goal for that year. The Chinese automaker delivered 6,007 Zeekr 001 electric crossovers in late 2021 after delivery began in October and has partnered with Intel subsidiary Mobileye on self-driving technology. [CLS, in Chinese]