TikTok fires dozens of employees in the United States and Europe

According to five people familiar with the situation, TikTok has initiated a global restructuring of its businesswhich also includes the dismissal of several employees.

In recent years, the app – controlled by Chinese company ByteDance – had rapidly expanded both its user base and staff. In September TikTok has exceeded one billion monthly active users and today it counts thousands of employees around the world. The rapid growth and success of the platform among younger users has prompted rival social networks like Instagram and YouTube – owned by Meta and Google respectively – to introduce short video formats similar to those of TikTok.

Monday, July 18, however, some European employees of the company were informed that their jobs were at risk and that they should expect to be summoned in the coming weeks for a meeting with human resources managers, according to sources inside the company. Some employees in the UK have been warned that there will be staff cuts in various departments of the company. On the same day also in the United States some employees were informed that their positions would be eliminated.

A TikTok employee said the internally announced restructuring includes layoffs and the closure of some vacant roles and relates to the company’s activities in the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. THE expansion plans of some teams moreover, they have been within the company frozen.

One of the first executives hired by TikTok outside of China, David Ortiz – who had previously worked for Snap, the company that controls Snapchat – has announced on LinkedIn that he wants to leave the company because his role has been eliminated in the framework “a much larger reorganization“.

A senior TikTok employee familiar with recent developments did not deny that the company is undergoing a restructuring that also includes layoffs. A spokesperson for TikTokby responding to a request for comment submitted by Wired UK, did not question the existence of the cutshowever, refusing to officially comment on the situation.