(Yicai Global) Oct. 19 -- Chinese internet giant ByteDance Technology confirmed today that staff are being let go from its commercialization team.

The layoffs are a normal business adjustment, executives at the Beijing-based firm’s human resources department were cited as saying by online news outlet The Paper.

The admission comes after an employee of the owner of TikTok recently revealed on a career and social-networking app that the Beijing-based company was making changes to its commercialization team, the report said.

All staff in “Wenzhou [Zhejiang province] have been laid off,” the person said, adding that “30 percent to 70 percent of staff in local direct-sales and call centers will be dismissed.” The same employees also said they had heard about layoffs at ByteDance’s education and gaming business departments.

Since the end of last year, ByteDance has been making a series of changes to the organizational structure and business scope of its commercialization team, which is mainly responsible for the expansion and monetization of online traffic as well as many other businesses.

Among them, the most-profitable e-commerce business at the local direct-sales center in Wenzhou was merged into the mass consumption business, resulting in a slump in the performance of the direct-sales business center. So it became the first to lay off staff and eventually exit Wenzhou, according to media reports earlier today.

Editor: Peter Thomas