Google China partners warn of layoffs, possible closures

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Google’s partners in China say they have received no guidance from the search firm about their future and have called for talks on compensation.

A letter from 27 advertising resellers, published on the website of state broadcaster CCTV, warns of staff layoffs and possible bankruptcy in the wake of Google’s exit from China.

One of the signatories to the letter – addressed to John Liu, the head of Google’s China s sales team - confirmed its authenticity, the Wall Street Journal said. 

The letter said they “cannot understand why, until this day, Google has not communicated with us how the matter will be solved, nor negotiated with us about” how to solve the issue.

It revealed that most of the companies primarily sell Google ads and many of their customers have made prepayments for ads.

One company, Zoom Interactive, told the WSJ that it sold that it sold Google ads to more than 1,000 clients, highlighting the potential scale of the issue.