TikTok layoffs: Employees of TikTok’s ecommerce business face layoffs

Employees of TikTok and its parent ByteDance could be facing layoffs, according to a report by Business Insider. Per the report, the company has informed staff that it would announce "organisational and personnel changes".

These “changes” are expected to affect employees in TikTok Shop, which is the short-form video platform’s ecommerce business.

The company said in a memo that the decision followed "careful analysis of how to create more efficient operating models for the team's long-term growth," according to Business Insider.


Last month, Bloomberg reported that the company started replacing US-based staff with leaders from China, hoping to replicate TikTok Shop’s success in Asia within the US market. This was following the failure of its US ecommerce business to meet the goal of $17.5 billion in transaction volume.

In addition, over 100 TikTok Shop employees in the US were either fired or left the company due to ongoing confusion among leaders, which made the work environment increasingly difficult, the report said.

This development comes against the backdrop of ongoing uncertainty over TikTok’s future in the US. President Donald Trump, for the third time this year, delayed a ban on the app. He signed an executive order granting an additional 90 days for his administration to negotiate a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.