Observer: Efficiency After Merger, Bytedance Lays Employees

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Bytedance, a parent company from Tokopedia and ShopTokopedia, is rumored to be cutting off employment (PHK) after merging a number of employees in the e-commerce business in Indonesia. This step was taken after going through an in-depth evaluation process of the performance and operational efficiency of their e-commerce business in the country.

Reporting from Bloomberg, this decision will have an impact on about 450 employees of the total e-commerce Bytedance employees in Indonesia. However, the company ensures that those affected will receive a full salary of one month as a form of support during the transition period.

In addition, employees will also receive severance pay that is in accordance with their respective working period, as an award for their contribution so far.

Technology Observer and Executive Director of the ICT Institute Heru Sutadi said that reducing employees or layoffs in companies that carry out mergers is unavoidable. Because with the merger, there is a double part so that it is inefficient. He hopes that even if there are layoffs, then this is a very minimal reduction.

"Indeed, we have to look at cased by cased. The layoffs that occurred at Tokopedia are not tech winners. Indeed, many other companies have layoffs, caused by tech winners, such as competing defeats, unable to reach unicorns, technology that has been used, no funding and others. Well, this will have an impact on efficiency that leads to layoffs. But at Tokopedia this is clearly different, "said Heru Sutadi, Thursday, June 13.

Previously, layoffs due to mergers or acquisitions did not only occur in Bytedance, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, which is one of the major telecommunications companies in Indonesia, also laid off in 2022 as part of their merger process.

After the merger of Indosat Ooredoo and Hutchison 3 Indonesia, the company decided to streamline its organizational structure, leading to a reduction in a number of job positions. This is done to avoid redundancy and ensure that the company can operate more efficiently after-merger.

The same thing happened when Meta Platforms Inc, which is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in 2022, announced massive layoffs. This decision was taken in response to the company's declining revenue and strategic priority changes.

Seeing this, the steps taken by Bytedance not only reflect the company's internal dynamics, but also highlight the global trend in which big tech companies make significant adjustments to its organizational structure to remain competitive amid increasingly complex economic challenges.

Although it has an impact on many employees, this step is expected to strengthen the company's position in the long term so that it can continue to innovate and develop.