TikTok owner ByteDance announced on Tuesday it would hand out cash bonuses to employees working to help it overcome challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and changing macro environment.

Thank you for your hard work and dedication.

ByteDance Letter

Employees to receive a cash bonus worth half their August salary

According to the notification full-time employees who have worked for 26 or more working days between July to August will be given a bonus worth half their August base salary.

The TikTok team and especially the deal team have been working day in and day out at TikTok had been hit by the global challenges as well as the departure of its CEO Kevin Mayer who quit after just three months.

ByteDance has come under global scrutiny amid concerns about TikTok’s collection of personal data and censoring of political content. The United States has said it will ban the short video app unless ByteDance sells the app’s U.S. operations amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. The Chinese government does not have any jurisdiction over TikTok content.

ByteDance has over 60,000 employees globally the staff had been working endless hours amid the surrounding noise.

Zhang Yiming – ByteDance CEO

ByteDance’s cash bonuses, which come as many companies face financial pressure due to COVID-19 and a slowing economy, was on Tuesday among the most discussed topics on Maimai, China’s version of LinkedIn.

Late last year, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei also said it would hand out 2 billion yuan ($293 million) in cash rewards to staff as a mark of recognition for work in the face of a U.S. trade blacklisting.

Source: Reuters