ByteDance confirms layoff plan at its Indonesian unit | WTAQ News Discussion

JAKARTA (Reuters) – China’s ByteDance will lay off workers at its Indonesian unit following a deal in which it bought a local e-commerce company and merged it with TikTok, a spokesman said on Friday. ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, did not say how many employees would be affected. Bloomberg previously reported that 450 employees would be laid off.

In January, ByteDance finalized the purchase of a majority stake in Tokopedia, an Indonesian e-commerce company, from the GoTo group.

ByteDance spokesman Nuraini Razak told Reuters in a statement that the company “will make necessary adjustments” as a result of the TikTok and Tokopedia merger.

“We have identified areas where we can strengthen our organization and better align our teams with company goals,” she said, adding that the company “will strive to support employees during the transition.”

ByteDance operated its own e-commerce business in Indonesia through the TikTok app, but this was banned under an Indonesian law that says social media apps cannot operate as an e-commerce platform.

Tokopedia is one of the leading e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by John Mair)