Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing company, said Friday that it will slash 15 percent of its total staff, or about 2,000 employees, this year, as part of a broader push to focus on its most important ride-hailing business while shutting down or transferring peripheral business.

At the same time, the Beijing-based company will recruit about 2,500 new employees to boost its capabilities in safety technology, products, driver management, globalization and other areas.

Overall, its total number of employees will stand at 13,000 by the end of 2019, maintaining the level of 2018, the company said.

Cheng Wei, Didi's CEO, said the company will step up investment into safety and compliance as well as boosting efficiency while getting ready for a "winter".

Didi said the layoffs will involve staff with overlapping positions or underperforming employees.