TikTok to lay off more than 60 employees at Bellevue office

TikTok will lay off more than 60 employees from its Bellevue office, the company announced Monday.

TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, both submitted separate state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN), expected to begin July 28.

TikTok lays off Bellevue employees

The layoff from TikTok will affect 38 Bellevue employees, and ByteDance’s submission outlined that an additional 27 employees will be impacted at the Bellevue office.

“As the TikTok Shop business evolves, we regularly review our operations to ensure long-term success,” a TikTok Shop spokesperson told KING 5. “Following careful consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to adjust parts of our team to better align with strategic priorities.”

ByteDance, a Chinese-owned company and owner of the TikTok social media app, has faced multiple bans in the U.S.; however, the deadline for ByteDance to divest from TikTok has been extended three times by President Trump.

ByteDance has previously announced that it is building a new version of its app specifically for users in the U.S. The three extensions have helped TikTok avoid being banned entirely in the U.S. Agreements to bring TikTok under American ownership have been underway throughout this time.

TikTok currently supports 170 million users inside the U.S., and other large tech companies, including Apple and Google, have continued to provide TikTok within their app stores.

A survey from the Pew Research Center concluded that one-third of Americans supported a TikTok ban in the U.S., which is lower than the previously recorded 50% in March 2023. Additionally, one-third said they would not oppose the ban, and the remaining participants said they weren’t sure.

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