Twitter staff in Singapore fired, more job losses in Asia predicted

Staff at Twitter‘s Singapore office were fired yesterday. Employees were told via email that they had to evacuate the CapitaGreen building premises by 5pm.

An anonymous staff member informed the press that Singapore-based employees at Twitter have been temporarily reassigned to work remotely within the company’s internal system.

According to a tweet by Casey Newton, the operator of the technology-focused platform Platformer, employees at the Singapore office of Twitter were escorted out by the landlords of the office in the central business district of the city-state.

It’s still unclear whether the office shutdown is permanent.

Twitter established its presence in Singapore in 2013. In 2015, the company moved into a larger office which it designated as its base in the Asia Pacific region. In 2022, Twitter announced plans to expand its Singapore presence by doubling its engineering headcount to over 100 by this year.

Twitter’s Asia-Pacific headquarters, located in Singapore, has been impacted by significant job cuts under new owner Elon Musk. This month, the company also terminated the position of Nur Azhar Bin Ayob, the head of site integrity for the region.

Musk’s cost-cutting efforts at Twitter have included not paying rent on the company’s global headquarters. Last month, the landlord of the San Francisco offices filed a lawsuit against the company.

It has been reported that the closure of the Singapore office is also related to non-payment of rent on the facility, says Newton.

It is understood Twitter is closing a number of international offices, including those in Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia, India, and the Philippines.

Representatives for both Twitter and CapitaLand, the owner of the Singapore office building, were not immediately available for comment when contacted.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs staff are facing a similar situation as the bank begins a cost-cutting drive that could result in the reduction of its 49,000-strong global workforce by thousands.

The cuts began in Asia yesterday, where the United States investment bank cut back its private wealth management unit and let go of 11 private bank staff in its Hong Kong and Singapore offices.

About eight staff members were also laid off in Goldman’s research department in Hong Kong, and layoffs are continuing in other divisions within the investment bank.

According to a report by the Financial Times, Goldman Sachs’ redundancy plans will be followed by a broader spending review that will include corporate travel and expenses. This is due to a significant slowdown in corporate dealmaking and a slump in capital market activity since the war in Ukraine.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment.