TikTok has implemented job reductions affecting about 60 employees, primarily in sales and advertising, joining a wave of tech companies to implement job cuts in recent weeks.
The layoffs were first reported by NPR on Monday (January 22), citing a company spokesperson, who attributed the move to a routine reorganization.
Affected roles reportedly include positions in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, and locations outside the US, representing less than 1% of TikTok’s roughly 7,000 US employees. TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance employs more than 150,000 workers globally.
NPR said a town hall meeting was scheduled for Tuesday (January 23) to address employees following the announcement.
Separately, a company spokesperson reportedly told CNBC that the affected staff “may apply to any open internal roles, of which there are over 120 similar roles posted currently.”
TikTok remains one of the most popular apps in the US, despite ongoing scrutiny from Washington regarding the ties of its parent company, ByteDance, to the government of China. Despite concerns, the platform boasts significant growth and user base, with over 150 million active users in the US alone as of February 2023.
The platform has also ventured into music streaming that’s licensed by all three major record companies – Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music – as well as e-commerce.
Bloomberg recently reported that TikTok is planning to grow its US e-commerce business by tenfold to as much as $17.5 billion in gross merchandise value this year.
“We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to center on long-term strategic growth areas,” a TikTok spokesperson reportedly told CNBC in November when ByteDance slashed hundreds of jobs in its gaming division, Nuverse.
TikTok’s job cuts reflect a broader trend within the tech sector, with major companies like Google and Amazon also announcing workforce reductions in recent weeks. In the music industry, Universal Music Group was reported to be planning on making ‘hundreds’ of layoffs in Q1 2024.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that UMG’s recorded music division, the company’s largest, ‘will be hit the hardest’.
Last month, music streaming giant Spotify also announced a workforce reduction affecting 17% of its staff, or 1,500 employees.
Data from layoffs.fyi show that 13,240 employees have been laid off so far in 2024 by 72 tech companies, including eBay, which on Wednesday (January 24) was reported to be laying off around 1,000 workers, or 9% of its full-time employees.
In 2023, more than 240,000 tech jobs were lost, a total that is more than 50% higher than in full-year 2022.
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