No layoffs, salary cuts on cards, assures CEO Kevin Mayer after TikTok ban

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Hopes the government verification will end soon, and India operations will resume
• India remains a crucial market
• Asks employees to make use of this time to study and upskill

Addressing employees through a virtual town hall on ByteDance's internal communications platform, Kevin Mayer, the chief executive of the company assured that they were closely working with the government to resolve all issues. Kevin, who left the post of Disney's streaming head to become TikTok CEO, was joined by Nikhil Gandhi, TikTok's India head, and Rohan Mishra, India head, Helo, during the address to its over 2,000 employees based in the country.

In the 30-minute-long town hall, Kevin also said that he was closely monitoring the situation and actively engaging with the government in all the dialogues. Even as the company is proactively providing all the necessary documents and compliances to establish its bonafides, he further said that all the verification of the companies claims could take a couple of weeks. Reiterating that TikTok was adhering to all the rules and regulations applicable, in India he asserted that that there was no violation of any laws on the part of the company. Most importantly he also told employees that TikTok will bounce back strongly once the issue is resolved.

Assuring employees that India will remain a very important market to the company, and that the government's move to ban few of ByteDance's apps would not result in layoffs or salary cuts for employees in India. Kevin, who also is the Chief Operation Officer at ByteDance (parent company of TikTok), said that while Indian clients were important, the employees were even more important to them. He also advised the employees to make use of the time to study and upskill themselves.

Kevin's address comes on the back of Indian government banning 59 Chinese apps, which it said posed a threat to the security of the nation and also geo-political tensions arising out of China-India army standoff at the country's northern border in Ladakh.

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