Indonesia’s Tokopedia denies mass lay-offs, but ‘restructuring’ deepens tech winter fears

The cuts have also raised questions over the future of one of Indonesia’s best-known home-grown digital champions, with analysts saying Tokopedia’s deeper integration into ByteDance’s ecosystem could shift more technology, product and strategic decisions outside the country.

Tokopedia, which once aspired to be the Alibaba of Indonesia, cut more than 450 technology roles earlier this month, leaving just 35 such workers at the company, CNBC Indonesia reported on July 2, citing an unnamed company source.

The outlet said Tokopedia employed 1,100 engineers and developers before ByteDance’s acquisition and that the new round of lay-offs had now reduced its original workforce of 2,500 to about 10 per cent, mostly in the business, trust and safety, and technology divisions.

CNBC Indonesia also reported that ByteDance’s engineering team in China would take over Tokopedia’s technology workload, citing another unnamed source that said “it will all be done in China”.

On Monday, Stephanie Susilo, executive director of TikTok and Tokopedia, denied the mass lay-offs, describing the staff movements as “ongoing workforce restructuring and internal mobility” within the Indonesian organisation.