Heaptalk, Jakarta — TikTok follows other global tech companies footsteps, such as Amazon and Google, by laying off around 60 jobs globally .
In this complex measure, this layoff reportedly impacted TikTok’s employees in the sales and advertising divisions in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, and abroad. The company refused to explain the reasons for the layoffs. However, the laid-off workforce can apply for other available positions on TikTok, which currently has over 120 similar job vacancies.
“We regularly review the business and adjust to focus on long-term strategic growth areas. Following this latest review, we have taken the complicated resolution to restructure the gaming business line,” TikTok’s spokesperson said, cited in CNBC.
Instead of disclosing the reasons for layoffs in detail, this short live video platform claimed that this layoff was a regular reorganization move. However, other reports revealed that these layoffs are aimed at cutting costs. In mid-2022, TikTok laid off 100 employees in its United States and European offices. Besides, the company, which has invested in Tokopedia worth US$ 1.5 billion, has terminated its employees in Dublin in 2023.
As information, the layoff storm around technology companies worldwide occurred in early 2024. Refers to the Layoffs.fyi report, around 67 technology companies joined the trend of firing technology company employees, which has affected around 11,823 people by January 2024. This output jumped by about 65.14%, compared to the previous 7,159 employees per December 2023, whereby around 56 technology companies performed restructuring steps for their employees.
In 2023, TikTok owned about 7,000 employees in the US, while its parent company, ByteDance, has a global workforce of over 150,000 people. Parent company ByteDance also slashed hundreds of jobs in its gaming division Nuverse. This layoff indicated that the company aimed to rescale its gaming efforts amidst the strict competition with others, such as Tencent and NetEase.
TikTok continues to evolve, but the SensorTower data shows the growth is decelerating. In 2022, TikTok’s monthly users enhanced an average of 12% YoY quarterly in 2023, indicating a decrease of 3%.
