(Beijing) Chinese technology giant and owner of TikTok, ByteDance, will cut “several hundred” jobs in its video games division, a competitive sector, in order to refocus on its core activities, a source said close to the file Monday to AFP.

Video game publisher Nuverse, a subsidiary of ByteDance, is currently carrying out a series of layoffs which will affect “several hundred people,” the source said.

These layoffs should allow ByteDance to concentrate on its core activities and streamline its organization, she explained, adding that they do not put an end to Nuverse’s activities in the field of video games.

“We regularly review our operations and make adjustments to focus on areas of long-term strategic growth. Following a recent review, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business,” a ByteDance spokesperson said in a statement.

The move comes despite significant investments made by ByteDance in Nuverse over the past few years in an attempt to catch up with industry leader Tencent.

Launched in 2019, Nuverse did not experience the commercial success hoped for by ByteDance.

Chinese internet giant Tencent is the world’s largest player by revenue in the video games sector, dominating the Asian market and investing in game publishers across the world.