Asian Tech Press (Jan 19) -- ByteDance Ltd., parent company of the most popular non-gaming app worldwide TikTok, has already disbanded its strategic investment department, a former employee revealed Wednesday.

It's rumored that TikTok owner's strategic investment department has been dissolved recently, and some of the former department members will be appointed to other positions.

A former employee of the department, who was responsible for the company's investment in gaming sector, confirmed that the news was true, but did not explain the reasons.

However, there have been rumors that the State Internet Information Office (SIIO), the country's cybersecurity regulator, has released a filing to regulate Internet companies' listing, investment and financing operations, which may be a possible reason to explain the laying off of the strategic investment department by ByteDance.

Sources close to the matter said that the filing requires companies with more than 100 million platform users or more than 10 billion yuan in revenue last year to seek prior approval from the local Internet Information Office before reporting to the Market Supervision Bureau for listing and investment and financing.

If the news is true, ByteDance will not be the only Internet company affected in China. A number of Internet giants, including Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Didi Global, Baidu and JD.com, have already had hundreds of millions of users, and their investment strategies may undergo significant changes.

In this regard, the person in charge of relevant business at ByteDance said that after counting and analyzing its business at the beginning of the year, the company decided to strengthen business focus, reduce the number of investments with low synergy, disperse the staff of the strategic investment department to various business lines, and strengthen the strategic research function in conjunction with the business. And the company is still planning and discussing about the related business lines and teams.