LeEco to Potentially Exit the Indian Market; Lays off over 85% of Indian Staff

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 3 Mar 2017

LeEco Le 1S

Chinese company LeEco entered India in early 2016 amidst a huge marketing campaign. The company went on to launch a bunch of handsets at an attractive price and even quickly managed to launch its TVs with a decent ecosystem around them. However, things have not been looking well for the company as it has fired over 85 percent of its staff in India in the last few months.

The company is now reportedly planning to exit India as well due to the financial crunch its parent company is facing. The Chinese company had already acknowledged that it expanded too quickly for its own good which has led to it running out of cash.

In India, two of the company’s top executives: Atul Jain, COO of electronics business; and Debashish Ghosh, COO of Services and Content, have already resigned. The cash crunch has led to LeEco not paying its outstanding dues to many media and advertising agencies in the country.

Despite its heavy marketing push and rapid expansion, LeEco did not meet with much success in the country.

LeEco’s India COO Alex Li confirmed the exits of the top two executives, but he claimed that the company has no plans to exit the Indian market anytime soon. Instead, on the job cuts, he said that the company is only realigning its resources so as to ensure profitability.

Things, however, are not looking good for the company as one of the sources of ET Tech confirmed that LeEco sales have slumped post demonetization, with the company now planning on exiting the market completely. The company had already exited the offline channel in India by the end of last year.

[Via ET Tech]