Asian Tech Press (Dec 19) -- Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) has launched massive layoffs, sources said.

Xiaomi has recently kicked off a round of layoffs, according to multiple Chinese media reports.

A Xiaomi employee said that the layoffs involved the company's smartphone division, Internet division, China division and many other units, but at different levels in each department.

The overall size of this round of layoffs is not yet clear, but may reach 15% by estimate.

Earlier there was news that Xiaomi was planning to lay off a large number of employees in order to reduce labor costs, and expected that the number of layoffs in this round would reach 6,000.

For the news of layoffs, Xiaomi has not yet made a formal response.

IDC data shows that Xiaomi shipped about 9 million units in the third quarter, down 17.9% year-on-year, accounting for 12.7% of China's smartphone market, ranking fifth.