TikTok owner ByteDance reportedly let go of hundreds of staff across several divisions before the end of 2022 as part of the company's attempts to simplify operations.
Workers at Douyin, China's answer to TikTok with 600 million daily active users (DAUs), have been impacted by the move, as have those at the company's gaming and real estate divisions. This news is according to sources who asked South China Morning Post (SCMP) not to be identified.
Termination Measure
ByteDance is one of the major employers in China's tech industry and has over 100,000 workers globally. Therefore, the number of people affected by the layoffs is relatively minimal.
ByteDance is owned privately; hence, the company is under no obligation to announce any changes in its operations publicly.
The ByteDance layoffs were initially reported by the Chinese news organization Jiemian. According to the article, around 10% of ByteDance's workforce was affected by the company's decision to discontinue support for Feishu (formerly known as Lark), a corporate communication tool.
One of the sources indicated that those who are let off would be paid compensation equal to their annual wage plus one month.
Liang Rubo, who was head of human resources before succeeding founder Zhang Yiming as CEO in 2021, announced the layoffs in late December, telling employees that the company needs to "get fit and beef up the muscle." This is a phrase that Rubo has used frequently over the past year in an effort to streamline operations.
At the same time, a team is being assembled at ByteDance. Thousands of technical and marketing positions in locations as diverse as Beijing, London, and Mountain View, California, may be found posted on the company's website.
It is a widespread practice in China's technology industry to lay off workers and fire low-performers in the name of company optimization. Thousands of jobs were eliminated at other Chinese internet companies in 2022, such as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.
TikTok vs. the US
As TikTok encounters political downside risks in the US and an unknown regulatory framework in China, ByteDance is in for a tough year.
At the federal level, TikTok has been restricted across all government-issued devices in the US, and at the state level, at least 19 states have taken similar action.
The White House is reportedly contemplating forcing a sale of TikTok's US business, per reports last month.
Prior Headlines
The corporation has a history of cutbacks stretching back over a decade.
A restriction on private tutoring in Beijing in 2021 led to thousands of layoffs, and in 2022, the company's video game studios in Shanghai and Hangzhou had to lay off hundreds of workers.
Meanwhile, the company's initial public offering (IPO) preparations have an air of mystery. In September, CFO Julie Gao informed staff that ByteDance would not go public.
In SCMP's report, one unnamed early investor in ByteDance stated the firm was not hurrying its preparations for an IPO and that no timeline had been established. The investor said, "There are just too many uncertainties."
