CEO threatens to fire the entire marketing department on livestream

A major Chinese company has fired all its livestream advertising staff to replace them with AI, signaling a trend of many jobs being replaced by technology.

Job seekers attend a job fair held in Shanghai, February 2025. Photo: Xinhua .

“I plan to fire the marketing department of 360 Security Technology. This will save the company tens of millions of yuan every year,” Zhou Hongyi, chairman of China’s top security firm, said in a livestream reported by CNBC . The video has attracted more than 191,000 views on Weibo alone.

Zhou Hongyi, said he was trying out the company’s upcoming generative AI tool to prepare a press conference himself. It may be a gimmick to promote the company’s new product, but it reflects the company’s recent trend of cutting costs and replacing human resources with AI.

A video of the CEO of 360 Security Technology saying he would fire all his marketing staff has attracted attention on social network Weibo. Photo: Weibo .

Last week, US financial group Citigroup announced that it would cut 3,500 technology employees in China by October. The CEO of AI company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, also said that AI could increase unemployment by 10-20% in the next 1-5 years.

In China, many businesses are looking to improve productivity with AI, especially in marketing and programming. Food delivery giant Meituan told investors in late May that about 52% of its new code was generated using AI, up from 27% in March.

Major tech companies in China now explicitly require new graduates to have AI skills, according to Shu Weibing, COO of HangHang AI. “If a student doesn’t know how to use AI, it will be very difficult to find a job,” he said.

In recent years, a common narrative on Chinese social media has been job insecurity. Record numbers of college graduates have been graduating, and many young people continue their education with financial support from their parents. Companies have cut salaries, withdrawn bonuses, dissolved entire divisions, or closed. Many users and businesses have flocked to social media and livestreaming, where competition remains fierce but the potential for “overnight change” remains, according to CNBC .

Meanwhile, the economic fallout from the trade war is intensifying. China’s exports to the United States fell 34 percent last month, according to official data released on June 9. Goldman Sachs estimates that about 16 million jobs in China depend on U.S. consumption. A May business survey showed a labor market contraction across many industries.

Source: https://znews.vn/ceo-doa-sa-thai-ca-phong-marketing-ngay-tren-livestream-post1560366.html