Beijing-based ByteDance has raised pay and sweetened incentives as the TikTok owner steps up efforts to retain and attract talent globally, as it makes progress on settling the future of its US business.
In an internal letter released to all staff on Friday and seen by the Post, the social media giant said it would lift both the upper and lower limits of compensation packages for staff across all ranks.
For its full-year 2025 performance cycle – with reviews starting on January 15, 2026 – ByteDance said its total bonus pool would increase by 35 per cent from a year earlier, while spending on compensation adjustments would rise 1.5 times.
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A ByteDance spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
The company said it was “raising the ceiling for compensation and incentives to ensure that our compensation competitiveness and incentives are industry-leading on a global scale”.
The company also said it would increase the cash portion of compensation while reducing the share paid in stock-based awards such as options or restricted stock units (RSUs). Equity incentives will now vest over three years instead of four, shortening the payout period for total equity grants.
In addition, the company said it would streamline its job-grading system into 10 levels, from L1 to L10, redefining capability requirements at each level to “higher standards” and creating more room for future pay rises.
ByteDance – the top recruiter in China’s tech sector this year – also said it had made progress in settling the future of its US business. Photo: Shutterstock alt=ByteDance – the top recruiter in China’s tech sector this year – also said it had made progress in settling the future of its US business. Photo: Shutterstock>
As competition for talent in the AI sector intensified, ByteDance was the top recruiter in China’s tech sector this year, with a hiring index of 897, ahead of Meituan at 587 and Alibaba Group Holding (owner of the Post) at 407, while AI-related job listings surged 543 per cent, a recent report by Maimai, China’s largest professional social networking platform, showed.
The index was calculated as the volume of new job postings divided by a fixed coefficient.
The pay and job-level overhaul came as ByteDance’s years-long negotiations over the future of its US business neared an end. TikTok chief executive Chew Shou Zi on Thursday informed employees that it had signed agreements with investors including Oracle Corporation, Silver Lake and MGX to form a new US joint venture, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
