“It was announced that despite efforts, the application was not giving the expected results, so it would be closed in Brazil and Indonesia”, reports a source to Curto News, who prefers to remain anonymous. The announcement of the shutdown came after a meeting, which lasted about 10 minutes, with a Chinese employee from ByteDance.
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ByteDance is a Chinese technology company that owns successful apps such as TikTok and CapCut. In 2022, the company recorded a 30% increase in revenue, exceeding US$80 billion. On LinkedIn, ByteDance still has open positions to work on the Helo operation in Brazil. In recent months, the app was expanding and gradually increased its staff until weeks ago.
Helo – which some define as a mix of TikTok and Twitter – arrived in Brazil with the proposal of being “a complete social media platform rooted in Brazilian culture”. Did something go wrong with this plan?
The approximately 60 Helo employees in Brazil were informed that activities will cease at the end of June. The company's HR in Brazil did not even contact the employees, which was the responsibility of Helo's HR in India, who scheduled individual meetings.
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Sources heard by Curto News says that Helo executives in Brazil suggested “taking advantage of the time looking for vacancies” and that this is not a layoffs by ByteDance.
Wanted by Curto News, Helo sent a statement through its press office: “We have made the difficult decision to end Helo services. We would like to thank our users and partners for their support and our team for their efforts and work. From June 30th, the application will no longer work. We are doing our best to provide assistance to affected employees.”
