TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew broke the jobs news at a meeting today with IDA Ireland representatives and Taoiseach Michéal Martin.
Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok has today (10 June) announced that it plans to hire an additional 1,000 workers to bolster its Irish operation.
At the beginning of this year, the company employed more than 2,000 staff in Ireland. It established its Irish operation in Dublin in 2018.
It has been expanding rapidly ever since. In January of this year, SiliconRepublic.com reported that TikTok was in talks to secure office space that would give it capacity for another 2,500 workers.
Today’s announcement by TikTok that it is hiring 1,000 highly skilled workers follows its previously revealed plans to open a European data centre in Dublin next year.
The company said in April of this year that it had signed the contract for the data centre. Construction is underway.
TikTok initially announced plans to build the data centre in 2020, pricing it at €420m to be completed in early 2022. At the time, the company’s global chief information security officer said it could create “hundreds of new jobs.”
The Irish Times reported this year that the tech giant had revised its plan and would invest around €600m to increase the centre’s capacity.
TikTok’s head of privacy in Europe, Elaine Fox, said the investment “cements the importance of Ireland” to the company’s global business operations.
Today’s jobs news was revealed at a meeting between TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, IDA Ireland representatives and Taoiseach Michéal Martin.
The TikTok leader informed the Irish contingent of the company’s future development plans for Ireland.
Following the meeting, Martin said: “TikTok’s latest expansion further embeds Ireland as an important hub for its European and global operations, and is clear evidence of its commitment to this country.
“The substantial number of additional, highly skilled jobs being created is testament to the strength of Ireland’s offering, which includes a strong talent base and collaborative ecosystem.”
Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland pointed to the fact that Dublin is the site for several of TikTok’s “critical functions”, including its EMEA Trust and Safety Hub, European SMB operations, European Data Privacy and Data Protection team, and its Transparency and Accountability Centre.
The most recently added facility in Dublin is TikTok’s cybersecurity centre called the Fusion Centre. It was first announced last July and has promised to create more than 50 new jobs.
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