(Yicai Global) March 15 -- Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings is reportedly laying off at least a fifth of its cloud and industrial internet staff by year-end.

The Shenzhen-based gaming behemoth's Cloud and Smart Industries Group will cut its headcount by 20 percent to 25 percent, tech news outlet 36Kr reported today, citing three employees at the unit. CSIG has about 19,000 employees.

"The layoffs are still ongoing and the actual proportion of staff that will be fired will surpass 20 percent by the end of this year," said a mid-level executive.

Company-wide, the scale is not as high as rumored. Several Tencent workers said that the rumors which claim that the overall ratio of fired employees is as high as 30 percent are not true. Moreover, they said that those aged 35 and above are not targeted. The arrangements are mainly caused by business adjustments, they added.

The social media company has been facing headwinds due to tightening regulatory oversight. Besides CSIG, Tencent's Platform and Content Group has been downsizing since late last year, according to the report. The latter is in charge of Tencent's content platforms involving video streaming, news, and sports.

The share of fired employees in the PCG division is already close to 10 percent while the portion is still increasing, multiple employees at the unit said to the same news outlet.

Seats may be vacated elsewhere too. Tencent’s Interactive Entertainment Group, which runs the firm's gaming and esports business, may consider letting some of its non-core project workers go, according to the report. But the share will not be very high, it added.

Still, some sections are intact. The report said that Tencent's remaining three divisions, namely Corporate Development Group, Technology Engineering Group, and WeChat Group, have no layoff plans.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi