The layoff saga continues

After Zomato, it was now TikTok’s turn. The India TikTok office is being closed February 28, and the 40 employee team has been told to find alternate options. With MeitY having banned and blocked 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps with Chinese links recently, the company says it has no other option. The Ministry of Home Affairs had recommended the MeitY ban under Section 69 of India’s IT law. The IT law allows the government to block public access to content in the interest of national security, among other reasons. Orders issued under the section are generally confidential in nature.

On the global front, on Thursday Yahoo Inc said the company plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce, impacting more than 1,600 people as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech unit, Axios.

On Wednesday Disney had announced that it was laying off 7,000 employees, in CEO Bob Iger’s first major decision since he was asked back to lead the company late last year.

On Monday, Dell announced it will be laying off 5% of its workforce- about 6,650 employees globally, as tech companies have been facing an uncertain global macroeconomic environment for the past few months.

Since the start of the year, 297 tech companies laid off nearly 95,000 workers, according to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi, a website that’s been tracking tech layoffs since March 2020. If that rate continues, the industry could cut more than 900,000 jobs in 2023. That’s nearly six times the total for the industry in 2022, according to the site.

CT Bureau