So much hot air: The Shopee brouhaha


HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPE-VINE: OUR NEW ABNORMAL

The Shopee 10.10 Brands Festival happens tomorrow, with the promotional activities having kicked off around two weeks ago. And unless you were living under a big boulder, you’d know that Shopee, the launch of its new endorser – Toni Gonzaga-Soriano, and their announcement of 2022 second quarter losses leading to downsizing via layoffs, all went under the social media microscope. And I’m certain, kibitzers will be ready to pounce, on either side of the coin, on what happens with their 10.10 tomorrow.

Me, I’m basically a disinterested observer to all the brouhaha that was created around these announcements – I don’t subscribe to either Shopee or Lazada. But while I know I’m not going to make new friends in the process, here’s my two cents worth on all that went down. I’d like to preface this by saying I’m trying to be objective; but let’s face it, in matters such as this, objectivity is actually relative – as we’ve seen time and time again, some quarters are so proprietary and territorial about truth, believing it’s something they have a monopoly on (and yes, you know who you are, so don’t deny it).

Everyone will have their own version of the events, as netizens flocked to express outrage over the impending layoffs and correlating it to the signing up of a new endorser for Shopee. The “enabler,” these netizens would call Toni, exhorting everyone to “cancel” their Shopee apps. And yes, it doesn’t take genius to discern that most who were endorsing this new manifestation of cancel culture, and were trying to conjoin the layoffs with the new endorsement, were of a particular political persuasion during the last elections. Am I being truthful so far?

THE CONTROVERSIAL new Shopee endorser, Toni Gonzaga.

Now I do blame Shopee on the bad timing of these two announcements coming practically one after the other, so it was easy picking for particular netizens to merge the two, and give their reactions a vestige of social conscience and positive action. But in fairness to Shopee, and basing on my experience, the two are not really connected. And it’s sad to see it being entwined, for what looks more like political “sore loser” syndrome. Let’s be dispassionate, and analyze why I say that.

Any company has the right to downsize or layoff people if incurring losses. If they lay off without the right compensation package or contravening the law, then there is just cause to go after them legally, a right that can be exercised by those affected. During the pandemic, many companies, restaurants, and retail brands had to let go of people, or shut down completely – and these “concerned” netizens weren’t rushing to call them immoral.

Shopee is still committing to do business here, and if there will be single digit lay-offs in due course (and can you please look at what’s happening more drastically with Shopee globally), can I just ask these netizens who will stand behind the workforce that will be retained. Stands to reason there will be more retained than laid off, and so what does your “cancelling” prove or result in, when it comes to their job security? What exactly are you solving, or correcting?

A decision to acquire a new endorser is months in the making, and not a spur of the moment decision.

Acquiring Toni must have been acted on long before the second quarter results came out. If it’s part of a new wrinkle to promoting 10.10, then it makes marketing sense. Shopee has a roster of so many other endorsers, and are you now saying they should all suffer, and lose this avenue of income, because the brand added Toni? Just wondering what the issue really is then?

Happening tomorrow.

If it’s just Toni that’s the issue, where were your “voices of indignation” when she was being launched as new endorser for this or that brand, over the last two to three months. I counted at least four prior to Shopee, and I didn’t hear a peep from all these netizens when these brands unveiled Toni.

So if it’s because Shopee is that much bigger a brand, I think you’re belittling those other brands – and shame on you, as some of those are resilient Filipino brands, who clawed their way through the pandemic. I’m only asking for consistency here; as let’s be honest, the elections were five months ago, and if we separate the issue of the downsizing, what do we really have left?

Is bringing down Shopee going to teach everyone a lesson? What is that lesson? In my mind, it smacks too much of how some netizens are still polarized by Toni, and they’re just masking that disgust with this issue of layoffs – with no regard for the people who’ll still be working at Shopee. Me, it’s for those people that I hope their 10.10 tomorrow is a big success. We don’t need Shopee closing its operations down here, that’s not a winning proposition for anyone.

And I’ve had enough of the negativity of cancel culture, when it’s used as a knee jerk reaction. Isn’t this more a case of you can’t do anything about the one sitting in the Palace, so let’s set our sights on Toni? Just saying…