TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, reportedly laid off off hundreds of employees from its education arm, amid Beijing's crackdown on after-school tuition businesses, according to Bloomberg.

Believed to have more than 10,000 employees at one point, at least hundreds of employees will be laid off with compensation, while others will moved to work on different products under the ByteDance umbrella.

GoGoKid, an English tutoring app, is expected to shut down completely, while two other apps will shift their focus to other forms of education, like coding and art.

China's crackdown on the tuition business

On July 24, China’s government implemented harsh curbs on the S$203 billion private tuition industry, banning private firms teaching school subjects to kids from earning profits and raising capital, reported the Guardian.

The recent crackdowns came after previous curbs and fines handed out to internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent.

The ostensible reason given by Chinese president Xi Jinping is to alleviate stress on students, perhaps in line with the recent move to allow families to have three children, to encourage families to have more children to stave off a looming demographics challenge.

How ByteDance is affected

ByteDance reportedly ventured into the education industry in search of its next success, after successes from TikTok, its Chinese twin Douyin, and news aggregator Toutiao, as per Bloomberg.

As recently as last October, ByteDance vowed to invest in its education arm without considering profits for the next three years.

However, recent Chinese regulations banned the hiring of foreigners outside the country as teachers and teaching school curricula to children under six -- rules that directly hit two of ByteDance’s education platforms.

Apart from shutting down GoGoKid, Guagua Long, an education app for kids aged two to eight, and Qingbei, an app that offers classroom style courses for children up to junior high, will switch focus to subjects like art and coding.

At the time of writing, the GoGoKid app is no longer available for download in the Chinese Apple App Store.

Singapore arm not affected

Despite the move, the TikTok office in Singapore will not be affected.

According to the Straits Times, the adjustments are specific to the Chinese market, not in Singapore.

ByteDance will also move to a bigger office at One Raffles Quay.

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Top image via ByteDance & Getty Images