TikTok steps up plan to grow Dublin-based workforce to 5,000

Just three weeks after it announced its intention to hire more than 200 people here over the next three months, TikTok has stepped up its plan for the expansion of its Irish operations yet again.

The Chinese-headquartered social media company is understood to have engaged commercial real estate adviser, Cushman & Wakefield, to conduct a search for up to 500,000sq ft of office space in Dublin, giving it the capacity to increase its Irish-based headcount to 5,000 workers.

The news of Cushman & Wakefield ’s selection comes just over 10 weeks after TikTok issued a request for proposal (RFP) to several Dublin-based real estate advisers, in which it invited them to pitch for the assignment.

Intent

While the company has already given a clear statement of its intent in relation to the growth of its Irish operations by announcing plans to bring its employee numbers here to 1,100 by early 2021, its latest office search suggests its ultimate ambition is to match, if not outstrip the presence of the mainly US-headquartered tech companies that dominate Dublin’s so-called Silicon Docks currently.

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Having employed just 20 people in the Republic at the start of this year, TikTok has, in the interim, expanded its presence significantly with the growth of its Trust and Safety Hub in Dublin.

The hub made the Irish operation TikTok’s third regional centre, enabling it to operate a localised approach to content policy.

TikTok has also designated Ireland as the hub of its European SMB business, which works with businesses and brands, and added a data privacy division to the Dublin-based team, appointing a head of privacy for EMEA and a data protection officer during the summer.

Since its establishment more than three years ago, TikTok has garnered in the region of one billion users globally.

The social media app has proved to be particularly popular with younger users.