ByteDance Will Lay Off Employees In Indonesia After Tokopedia Acquisition

JAKARTA - ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, will terminate employment (PHK) in their Indonesian unit after buying a local e-commerce company and combining it with TikTok operations. This was revealed by a company spokesman on Friday, June 14.

ByteDance did not mention the number of employees to be affected, but Bloomberg previously reported that there would be 450 layoffs.

In January, ByteDance finalized an agreement to buy most of Tokopedia's shares, Indonesia's e-commerce company, from the GoTo group.

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

"We identify areas to strengthen our organization and further align our team with the company's goals," he said. He added that the company would "try to support employees during this transition".

ByteDance has its own e-commerce operation in Indonesia through the TikTok application, but it is prohibited under Indonesian rules stating that social media applications cannot operate as an e-commerce platform.

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