Mr. Technology reported on April 28 that a recent media report stated that they received information from current employees within Mafengwo: Mafengwo is undergoing layoffs, accounting for 10% of the total number of employees. It is reported that all HCs below P7 have been axed.
The media reported that the layoffs meant that many departments would be disbanded. Mafengwo said it would not respond for the time being. As for whether the layoffs will affect Mafengwo’s listing plan, Mafengwo has not responded yet.
On April 3, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology website released the news that Mafengwo was interviewed by the three departments. It found that its website and mobile application store violated the provisions of the "Internet Information Services Management Measures" and violated the "Nine Prohibitions". Severely criticize the company for fulfilling its review obligations and immediately stopping transmission, and request immediate rectification.
During the interview, the three departments required Mafengwo to improve its political position and sensitivity, raise legal awareness, and submit a written rectification report within one week. At the same time, Mafengwo is required to conduct a comprehensive verification of all data on the website and APP.
Regarding the reason why Mafengwo was interviewed by the three departments, some self-media reports said that it may be because the platform’s travel notes contained content related to countries with which it has not established diplomatic relations.
Mafengwo responded at the time, saying that it would comprehensively investigate existing problems in accordance with the requirements of regulatory authorities, make immediate rectifications, and draw inferences from one example to improve internal management and review processes.
Public information shows that in October 2011, Mafengwo completed a $5 million Series A financing from Capital Today; in April 2013, it completed a Series B financing of $15 million from Capital Today, Qiming Venture Partners; in March 2015, it completed Series C financing from Hillhouse Capital, Coatue, CoBuilder, and Qiming Venture Partners; in November 2017, it received US$133 million in Series D financing from Ocean Link, General Atlantic, Temasek, Yuantai Evergreen Fund, and Hopu Fund also invested, and Capital Today, Qiming Capital, and Hillhouse Capital continued to invest.
According to information on its official website, Mafengwo was founded in 2006 and provides information and product booking services on transportation, hotels, attractions, restaurants, shopping, cars, local entertainment and other information and product booking services in 60,000 tourist destinations around the world.
In August 2018, foreign media reported that Mafengwo planned to raise US$300 million in a new round of financing. According to sources, in this round of financing of US$300 million, Mafengwo will be valued at US$2-2.5 billion. Mafengwo said it would not comment.