ByteDance Layoffs Around 1,800 Indian Employees After Permanent Ban

Chinese technology giant ByteDance, parent company of widely used short-video platform Tiktok, has started laying off its Indian employees after it failed to get Indian government's approval for restarting operations after it was temporarily banned by the government.

Out of the total 2,000 employees that ByteDance had hired to look over its biggest international market, India, Entrepreneur India has learnt that the Beijing-based company has already laid off 1,800 of its employees, retaining the rest to assist the global team.

The announcement comes after media reports suggested that the country will permanently ban 59 of the Chinese apps including TikTok to operate in the country.

In a letter to its employees, the company said the company has not been given a clear direction on how and when its apps could be reinstated.

"It is deeply regretful that after supporting our 2000+ employees in India for more than half a year, we have no choice but to scale back the size of our workforce," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

The short-video platform TikTok was an instant hit in India due to various factors like highest young population (600 million), second-highest population with deep Internet penetration made it conducive for the Chinese giants to go in full throttle in the country. The app had 120 million active users and recorded 660 million downloads in the country.

However, last year in June, the government of India in a sweeping move banned the operation of 59 Chinese apps which included TikTok in the backdrop of alarming border tension between India and China. The Ministry of electronics and IT later continued to pull the plugs of more than 200 Chinese apps on the grounds of security reasons.