ByteDance, the company that owns Tiktok and Helo, in an internal email to India employees has announced it will close some of its businesses in the region. Addressing over 2000 employees, Vanessa Pappas, CEO, TikTok and VP Blake Chandlee said the company could not stay fully staffed while the apps remained unoperational. "We are fully aware of the impact that this decision has for all of our employees in India, and we empathise with our team. These reductions are not in anyway reflection of the quality of those impacted, not their work. It is simply a function of the changes we must make in line with the current situation," the email said.
The mail also stated that though the company did its best to address all concerns raised by the government, the clear lack of direction from Government of India on how and when the app would be reinstated has led to the decision of downsizing the team.
According to sources, the entire sales team of the company (over 1,000 people) have been asked to leave, while those working on critical projects including teams helping on a few international operations have been retained. The company has offered to pay 5 months of salary as severance to the affected employees. In a statement TikTok spokesperson said, "It is therefore disappointing that in the ensuing seven months, despite our efforts we have not been given a clear direction on how and when our apps could be reinstated. It is deeply regretful that after supporting our 2000+ employees in India for more than half a year, we have no choice but to scale back the size of our workforce".
The decision also comes on the back of the Centre issuing a permanent ban notice to TikTok and other Chinese apps.
Also read: India bans TikTok permanently; app evaluates notice