Maya Robertson
Popular short video app TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance has laid off hundreds of staff across a number of departments before the end of 2022, sources familiar with the matter told the South China Morning Post.
The layoffs affected those working at TikTok’s Chinese version Douyin, which is used by 600 million users in the country on a daily basis, and also its gaming and real estate operations, according to the anonymous sources.
Weeks before the job cuts, ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo told staff that the tech giant must ‘’get fit and beef up the muscle’’ in order to streamline operations.
While the move has affected hundreds of employees at the company, it represents a small portion of ByteDance’s workforce which consists of more than 100,000 members around the world. Those who’ve got fired will be offered compensation based on the number of years they served at the company in addition to a one-month salary, sources added.
Last September, ByteDance also laid of hundreds of employees from its gaming business, sources told the SCMP at the time.
The new report comes at a time TikTok is facing legal challenges in the U.S., where more than 19 states have banned the app from government devices citing national security concerns. Last week, the United States House of Representatives also banned it from the devices it owns and manages.
Furthermore, as part of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, which has recently been signed by the U.S. President Joe Biden into law, TikTok will now be banned from almost all the government-issued devices in the country.
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