TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動) yesterday said that it would hand out cash bonuses to employees working to help it “overcome challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and changing macro environment.”
Full-time employees who have worked for 26 or more working days between July and last month would be given a bonus worth half their base salary last month, a letter from ByteDance to its employees showed.
“Thank you for your hard work and dedication,” the letter says.
ByteDance has said that it has more than 60,000 employees globally.
The company confirmed the letter, but did not provide details.
It has come under global scrutiny amid concerns about TikTok’s collection of personal data and censoring of political content.
The US has said it would ban the short video app unless ByteDance sells the app’s US operations amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.
ByteDance has said the Chinese government does not have any jurisdiction over TikTok content.
TikTok has also faced challenges in India, where it was among dozens of Chinese apps banned in June following a border clash between the two countries.
“The TikTok team and especially the deal team have been working day in and day out,” a company source said, adding that staff morale at TikTok had been hit by the global challenges, as well as the departure of Kevin Mayer, who quit as CEO after just three months.
ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming (張一鳴) said in an earlier letter that the staff had been working “endless hours” amid the surrounding “noise.”
ByteDance’s cash bonuses, which come as many companies face financial pressure due to COVID-19 and a slowing economy, were among the most discussed topics on Maimai (脈脈), China’s version of LinkedIn.
In related news, TikTok on Monday said that it was removing a clip of a suicide circulating on its platform and was banning accounts that were repeatedly trying to upload the clip.
TikTok did not specify the video, but at least two media reports said that videos of a man shooting himself with a gun had been circulating on TikTok since Sunday night.
“We’re aware that clips of a suicide that was livestreamed on Facebook have recently circulated on other platforms, including TikTok. Our systems have been automatically detecting and flagging these clips for violating our Community Guidelines,” TikTok said on Twitter.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a Reuters request to specify the video clip that it removed.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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