Payment giant PayPal has closed its office in Malaysia as part of a restructuring of its customer support teams.
The office, located in capital city Kuala Lumpur, was home to a team of customer service agents that catered to PayPal users across Asian region and beyond. Now, its responsibility will be assumed by other offices, which include locations in the Philippines, China and India.
A PayPal spokesperson explained to TechCrunch that the move is aimed at consolidating a range of different employees at PayPal offices to help blend a range of employees under the same roof. The closure of the office doesn’t impact the PayPal service in Malaysia.
PayPal confirmed the office will close this year in a statement. The company emphasized its efforts to transition affected staff into new jobs both inside PayPal and with other companies:
We have made the difficult decision to close PayPal’s Operations Centre in Malaysia by the end of this year. The work currently being delivered at our Operations Centre in Malaysia will gradually move to other locations. This internal reorganization does not affect our customers in Malaysia, who can continue to use our products and services as normal.
We regularly review our global site structure and staffing to ensure the support and services we provide at each site best meet the evolving demands of our customers. Our Operations Centre in Malaysia has done a remarkable job serving our customers since the site opened in 2011. However, this decision was made to align our investment in sites that are better equipped to support the future needs of our customers and our company.
Our priority now is to do everything we can to set up our employees for future success and we are fully committed to helping them as they transition to the next step in their careers. As well as offering comprehensive separation packages, we have built an on-site careers center to promote job opportunities and provide immediate assistance to employees.
PayPal was the first company to pioneer digital payments but it has fallen behind in Asia and other emerging markets as mobile payment players and messaging apps have stepped up.
WeChat, which offers integrated QR code payments, dominates China, while WhatsApp is experimenting with payments in India, its largest market with 200 million active users, in a move that may well expand to other markets including Southeast Asia, where it is widely used. Other challengers with digital payments include Line, which offers payments in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, and Alibaba’s Ant Financial, a major player in China that is making aggressive moves in Korea and Southeast Asia.
News of the Kuala Lumpur office closure was first reported by Malaysian media.
