Bytedance to lay off over 1,800 employees in India

Bytedance has decided to wind-up its India operations and hair cutting the employee base ,credited to the geo-political issue , where the Indian government permanently banned 59 China-linked apps earlier this week.

The recent announcement of permanent ban on Bytedance-owned TikTok along with 58 other China origin apps including PUB G mobile, Cam Scanner, Alibaba’s UC Browser and Tencent’s WeChat, among others. All these issues are related to a military confrontation with China in the Galwan Valley.

The sources said, 90% staff would be asked to go between today and the first week of February. It is calculated to above 1,800 staff in the next two weeks and will left with less than 250 employees in India. It has also vacated its office in WeWork , Gurgaon.

In an internal memo to its employees, Bytedance said that “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. We look forward to receiving the opportunity to relaunch TikTok and support the hundreds of millions of users, artists, story-tellers, educators and performers in India.

However, some have kept a skeleton team with a few employees, but they are likely to wrap up local presence completely, said the source.

It further says, we continually strive to make our apps comply with local laws and regulations and do our best to address any concerns they have. 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.