ByteDance, the parent company of social media appTikTok, has laid off hundreds of employees in its gaming division. TikTok presides as a popular social media and short media hub, with its stars creating oceans of content for viewers to get lost in. Often it is the purview of adorable videos like an85-year-old grandpa getting a birthday PS5, and is thought of as its own entity.
However,TikTokis owned by an even larger parent company called ByteDance, which has its fingers in many short video sites. This is not the extent of ByteDance’s holdings however, as it is invested in many aspects of the digital industry. Recently, ByteDance decided to cut back on one aspect of its business, to the detriment of many employees.
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ByteDance has downsized its gaming division by a considerable margin, laying off many employees in the process. Because ByteDance is not listed, it has not released the full numbers of employees laid off, but from similar cuts in other Chinese tech giants recently, it can be assumed to be a large number. This is further compounded by the fact that, until recently, the gaming division of ByteDance received major investment from the company, and was one of its major focuses. Similar to theFCC commissioner wanting to ban TikTok, the main drive behind this downsizing has to do with information restriction.
China has increased scrutiny and restrictions on the video game industry in 2022, leading to a dearth of new and exciting games being developed in the country, as well as a decrease of around one million regular players. This likely contributed to ByteDance’s decision, and another compounding factor may be that it initially began investment in its gaming division during 2020, when demand for games was high as the COVID-19 pandemic kept players indoors. WithTikTok rolling out a new feature to become more like Twitch, it’s clear gaming is still profitable for TikTok and its parent, just not in the way ByteDance hoped.
While certain elements of its gaming division will remain active to maintain projects that have already launched, there will be no further active game development under ByteDance for the foreseeable future. This marksByteDance’s purchase of developer Moontonas a misstep for both companies.
Because ByteDance’s gaming division was so heavily invested in two years ago, the cuts now mean the loss of hundreds of jobs. With the gaming industry facing widespread problems in China, it may be difficult for those let go to find more work. As many content creators must deal withTikTok suspending new content and streaming in Russia, these ex-ByteDance employees must now weather the storm on their industry in their home country.
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