NetEase’s slash of nearly half of existing headcounts have affected various business units, and the first one which is publicly announced to be hammered is the web album service. New user registration and membership fee top-up were halted since March 6, and the official date of the service operation termination is fixed on May, 8th. Employees who are to be laid off were encouraged to move onto its Tumblr-style blogging service, Lofter, according to insiders. The Chinese gaming giant is financially pressured by the government’s throttling of the online gaming industry last year, which can be reflected by an annual report of a year-on-year 42.5% fall on net income to RMB 6.1 billion (around $895 million).
