TikTok Fires 2000 Indian Employees As Comeback Seems Impossible; Rs 7500 Cr Investment Cancelled

Months after the popular video app Tiktok was banned by Indian government, citing reasons of national security and defense, China’s Bytedance has decided to reduce the size of its Indian team which is over 2000 in number.

This was done in the light of uncertainty about the potential comeback. This month, due to issues as compliance and privacy India decided to retain its ban on over 59 Chinese apps including Tiktok. On Wednesday, this news was broken to the team through an internal memo.

This ban dates back to the year 2020 when political tension due to border dispute broke out between the neighboring nations.

Cannot Keep Full Staff While App Is Unoperational:-

In the memo, ByteDance said that they thought initially that the ban would be short lived, but it has not been the case. They said that due to Tiktok being un-operational in India, they cannot keep full staff and also they don’t really know when they can make a comeback.

ByteDance said in its statement, that it was disheartening to not have any clear direction on how and when its apps could be reinstated. However, there is no clear indication on the number of employee termination.

India was Tiktok’s largest market before lockdown and ByteDance had laid out plans in 2019 to invest $1 billion in India.

Reacting to this news, Varun Saxena, CEO and Founder Bolo Indya said “It is unfortunate to see Indian talent in a fix as a result of Chinese app ban in India. Indians working in these companies are highly talented, enthusiastic, committed, and passionate to create a positive impact. We look forward to onboard quite a few of them where there is a strong cultural fit as well and have them as part of our journey to empower content creators to transform social capital to financial independence, and at the same time ensure a high user delight in consuming content on the platform.”

Describing the apps as prejudicial to the “sovereignty and integrity of India”, Indian government banned them last year at the time. This was followed by a conflict between the troops of two nations at a disputed Himalayan border site during which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

Sharing his views on this development, Aditya Kothari, Co-founder & chief strategist, Chingari said, “Sad to hear , so many people had to get laid off because of this move of tiktok. We were expecting this from a long time since govt imposed ban on Chinese app. Right now it’s a great opportunity and motivation for Indian entrepreneurs to showcase their potential and rise with a great product. Indian are capable of doing wonders. And our priority right now is Indian market and in near future we will expand our footprints.
It’s unfortunate for the lay off. None of the companies or founder wish so for his or her employee. We will hire some of the potential talent.”

Other Nations That Followed Suit:-

Citing national security concerns, previous President of United States, Donald Trump ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok, and also imposed restrictions that would have effectively barred its use.

Australia also has the app TikTok under scrutiny, citing potential foreign interference and data privacy issues risks that it may pose to the Australian users.