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TikTok’s Beijing-based proprietor ByteDance tightened its grip over its US operations over the previous two years, in accordance with firm insiders, at the same time as momentum to ban the short-video app grew in Washington.
The US authorities handed laws this week geared toward forcing TikTok to divest from its mother or father or face a national ban, however prising the viral video app from its $268 billion mother or father firm would current a formidable problem.
More than two dozen present and former staff informed the Financial Times that TikTok has solely turn into extra deeply interwoven with ByteDance as tensions over the app’s possession escalated.
These individuals stated that ByteDance workers, together with senior managers, had been transferred to TikTok; staff based mostly within the US who spoke Mandarin had been favored for his or her skill to coordinate with Chinese counterparts; and restructuring efforts had focused US-based staff who didn’t meet exacting efficiency requirements.
“There’s this sort of veneer or facade that these two companies are separate,” stated Joël Carter, a former US adverts coverage supervisor who left in August 2023. “Really, they’re one and the same.”
Ten present and former staff stated the variety of Chinese workers had been growing inside TikTok over the previous two years, with ByteDance transferring staff from China to different world places of work, together with within the US.
This has included senior leaders. Last yr, ByteDance moved Qing Lan from Douyin, its Chinese model of the brief video app, to go up TikTok’s small and medium-sized enterprise promoting arm within the US, an appointment first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The insiders principally spoke on situation of anonymity for worry of retaliation by the corporate, which might claw again bonuses and inventory awards if staffers breach non-disparagement guidelines, in accordance with paperwork seen by the FT.