Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok has reportedly begun laying off its American, UK, and EU employees as part of a global restructuring of the business.
Wired reports that TikTok has begun a global restructuring of its business that is putting the jobs of many of its American, UK, and EU employees at risk. The video app, owned by Chinese parent company Bytedance, informed some employees in Europe that their jobs were at risk and to expect invitations to meet with human resources staff in the coming weeks.
Shouzi Chew, chief executive officer of TikTok Inc. Photographer: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg
TikTok influencers Florin Vitan (L) and Alessia Lanza perform a video for the social network TikTok in the “Defhouse”, a TikTok influencers incubator in Milan, on January 21, 2021. – With dreams of the big screen but Internet in their veins, eight young Italian influencers are racking up followers as they spend their days in a Milan TikTok luxury loft. All the influencers live on site — although the youngest still go to school — where they receive training in a variety of areas potentially of use in their videos, whether music and culture, politics and current affairs, diction, or even good manners. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)
On Monday morning, some UK employees were also warned that job losses will occur across a number of departments within TikTok. Many U.S. employees who began working a few hours later were also informed that their roles were being eliminated as part of the restructuring.
The restructuring includes layoffs and the closing of vacant roles and applies to TikTok’s business units in the west. Plans to expand certain teams within these regions have also been suspended. One of TikTok’s earliest hires outside of China, David Ortiz, a former executive at Snap, announced on LinkedIn today that he was leaving the company as his role was being eliminated as part of a “much larger re-organization effort.”
A TikTok staffer told Wired that the layoffs were focused on individuals and teams that managers believed were not contributing adequately to the company and claimed that the number of layoffs would be less than 100. TikTok appears to have approximately 10,000 employees across the U.S. and Europe.
Brendan Gahan, a partner and chief social officer at Mekanism, a New York marketing agency, noted that the restructuring was unlikely to affect TikTok’s impact or popularity. “They’ve scaled at a rate we’ve never seen before,” said Gahan. “I can’t imagine that a few layoffs is a sign of broader troubles or anything that’s going to slow their momentum.”
Read more at Wired here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
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