Reeling from China's crackdown, Alibaba and Tencent readying big job cuts - sources

ALIBABA Group and Tencent Holdings are preparing to cut tens of thousands of jobs combined this year in one of their biggest layoff rounds as the internet firms try to cope with China's sweeping regulatory crackdown, sources said.

While Alibaba is yet to specify a group-wide target for the layoffs, China's biggest e-commerce company could ultimately axe more than 15% of its total workforce, or about 39,000 staff, estimated one of the sources with knowledge of the company's plans.