Earlier this month, a Weibo user took to the Chinese social media platform to vent about challenges in the tech industry. “It’s hard to not to be depressed, to be honest,” she wrote, adding the hashtags “#Alibaba layoffs #Tencent layoffs.”  In the comments section, users encouraged her to cheer up, but in response she wrote, “The current environment is too unfriendly to graduates, schools are closed, and it is so difficult to find a job.” The user’s posts offer a taste of the current level of morale in parts of the Chinese tech industry, following a spate of layoffs at some of the country’s most successful companies. The likes of Tencent, Bytedance and Didi, which have been rapidly expanding this century, have all had to slash staff over the last year or plan to do so. One analysis done by TechNode, a Chinese tech publication, showed that at least 72,779 workers at major Chinese tech firms have been laid off since last July.  As they deal with the a