Tiktok To Lay Off Around 2000 Employees In India After Permanent Ban

Following the ban of Chinese app, Tiktok and no surety over its return, the firm has now decided to close their operations in India.

Chinese social media firm Bytedance, which is the parent company of Tiktok earlier announced that they will close their business in India and will also lay off the employees. The cut will affect the 2,000-plus India team of Tiktok.

In a mail sent to all its employees, Tiktok's global interim head Vanessa Pappas and vice president for global business solutions Blake Chandlee confirmed that the decision will impact the employees and size of the team.

"We've cut expenses, while still paying benefits. However, we simply cannot responsibly stay fully staffed while our apps remain un-operational. We are fully aware of the impact that this decision has for all of our employees in India, and we empathize with our team," the e-mail read.

The executives shared details regarding the recent decision in their email. "While we don't know when we will make a comeback in India, we are confident in our resilience, and desire to do so in times to come," the email read.

Tiktok was banned in India on 29 June, 2020. Along with tiktok, 58 other Chinese apps were also banned. Earlier this month, India decided to continue the ban on all the apps. Since the ban, there has been uncertainty over the app’s return. The tiktok executives confirmed that they have been waiting for the past seven months.

"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 over 2,000 employees in India for more than half a year, we have no choice but to scale back the size of our workforce,” said the tiktok spokesperson.

The Bytedance executives have tried to cooperate with the Indian government. The app was banned even when tiktok complied with all the rules. But the lack of communication from Indian government has led them to take such a decision.

"Despite our efforts to communicate with them, especially since it impacts the careers and livelihoods of so many Indians, today we are forced to reduce the size of our team," the email read.

Being hopeful that the app will get a chance to relaunch in India, the tiktok spokesperson added that “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.”