[ad_1]
Deal
TikTok owner ByteDance said Tuesday that it would provide cash bonuses to working employees to help it “overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing macroeconomic environment.”
FILE PHOTO: Tik Tok logos are seen on smartphones in front of a ByteDance logo shown in this illustration taken on November 27, 2019. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration – RC2OJD9AMEJB / File Photo / File Photo
BEIJING / SHANGHAI: TikTok owner ByteDance said on Tuesday that it would provide cash bonuses to employees working to help it “overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing macroeconomic environment.”
Full-time employees who have worked 26 or more working days between July and August will receive a bonus equal to half their August base salary, according to a letter from ByteDance to its employees that was seen by Reuters.
“Thank you for your hard work and dedication,” the letter says. ByteDance has said it has more than 60,000 employees around the world.
The bonus could amount to hundreds of millions of yuan, according to ByteDance’s recruitment announcements and company sources.
ByteDance confirmed the letter but did not provide details.
ByteDance has come under global scrutiny amid concerns about TikTok’s collection of personal data and censorship of political content. The United States has said it will ban the short video app unless ByteDance sells the app’s US operations amid escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing.
ByteDance has said that the Chinese government has no jurisdiction over the content of TikTok.
TikTok has also faced challenges in India, where it was among dozens of Chinese apps banned in June following a border clash between the countries.
“The TikTok team and especially the settlement team have been working day after day,” said a company source, adding that staff morale at TikTok had been affected by global challenges as well as the departure of their CEO Kevin Mayer, who resigned for just three months.
ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming said in a previous letter that staff had been working “endless hours” amid the surrounding “noise.”
ByteDance’s cash bonuses, which come as many businesses face financial pressure due to COVID-19 and a slowing economy, were one of the most discussed topics on Maimai, the Chinese version of LinkedIn on Tuesday.
Late last year, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei also said it would hand out 2 billion yuan ($ 293 million) in cash rewards to staff as a mark of recognition for their work in the face of a commercial blacklist from the United States. .
(US $ 1 = 6.8357 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Edited by Himani Sarkar)
