Senior reporter Richard Lai was among the Engadget layoffs this week.

Lai joined Engadget in October 2009 and was the longest-serving writer on the site.

Lai joined Engadget in London and was promoted to associate editor before moving back to Hong Kong in early 2011, where he became editor-in-chief of Engadget Chinese.

He witnessed the recent boom of Chinese smartphone brands and hardware startups in Asia, and he also closely follows the drone and VR industries. He was one of the first international reporters to cover Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei, DJI and OnePlus well before they drew worldwide attention