The reductions, equal to about 9 per cent of employees at the Indonesian unit, will commence as soon as this month, according to people familiar with the matter. The final number is under discussion and could fluctuate as conditions change, the people said.
Indonesia is among the earliest markets for ByteDance’s e-commerce ambitions – and thus far, the biggest – but competition is intense with rivals such as Sea’s Shopee and Alibaba Group Holding’s Lazada. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
ByteDance is reducing staff across e-commerce teams, including advertising and operations, in part to eliminate duplicate functions, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions have not been made public. Following the combination of TikTok Shop and Tokopedia, ByteDance’s Indonesian e-commerce business has about 5,000 employees.
A ByteDance representative declined to comment.
ByteDance has joined Chinese Big Tech companies, from Alibaba to Tencent Holdings, in streamlining businesses and shoring up their bottom lines during an economic slowdown, with the firms’ combined restructuring efforts resulting in at least tens of thousands of jobs cut over the past two years.