TikTok owner ByteDance strikes blow to ‘996’ culture, cuts workday to 9 hours

ByteDance has ordered its employees to end their day by 7 pm, becoming one of the first tech companies in China to officially mandate shorter working hours.

Staff in China should only work from 10 am to 7 pm on Mondays to Fridays and will need to seek permission to stay beyond those hours at least one day in advance, according to an internal document on Monday that was seen by Bloomberg News. A representative for the TikTok and Douyin owner declined to comment.

The country’s gruelling work pace – known as “996” because employees often labour from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week – was long celebrated by tech billionaires from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Jack Ma to JD.com Inc.