TikTok Preps a Fresh Assault on Europe

These are turbulent times for TikTok employees. On Tuesday, we reported that TikTok is planning significant layoffs—including a large percentage of the roughly 1,000 people working in TikTok’s global user operations, content and marketing teams. The planned cuts are likely to further sap employee morale, already frayed by the possibility of a U.S. ban and past restructurings. 

The company is also poised to make a fresh push into Europe, which is emerging as an important market for TikTok because of that ban and as it tries to jumpstart user growth. The company is planning to expand TikTok Shop to France, Germany, Spain and Italy, according to people who have worked on the project or have been briefed about it. It’s unclear when TikTok Shop will be available in those countries, but it’s already invited some merchants to test the service in some new markets, according to The South China Morning Post.