Chinese take the reins at TikTok Shop in US as sales miss goal

ByteDance Ltd, TikTok’s parent company, has been replacing US-hired staff near Seattle with leaders connected to China, aiming to replicate its e-commerce success in Asia after sales fell short in America.

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TikTok Shop initially set a goal to increase its US e-commerce business tenfold last year to $17.5 billion in transaction volume, but the company had to drastically lower that goal, according to people familiar with the plan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk publicly.

TikTok established its Shop business in the Seattle area near Amazon. com Inc, the online retail giant it was aiming to displace. Meetings that used to be held in English are now often conducted in Mandarin and managers increasingly write in Chinese when communicating on Feishu, ByteDance’s internal Slack-like app, with English-speasking staff forced to rely on the built-in translation function.

More than 100 TikTok Shop employees in the US have been fired or have left amid confusion between leaders that has worsened the work environment, according to people familiar with the company.

The cultural transition taking place in the company coincides with its fight for survival in the US — due mainly to the app’s Chinese ties. A national security law passed by Congress last year requires TikTok’s US business to be spun off from its Chinese parent company or it will face a ban. Lawmakers warned that TikTok’s ties to China pose a threat to the safety and security of American users.

President Donald Trump has twice delayed the ban — with legal assurances from his attorney general — and another deadline for divestiture looms later this month, though that might also be extended, the Wall Street Journal has reported. ByteDance has said it doesn’t intend to sell.