TikTok is hiring up in Australia, as the wildly popular short-form video app continues to build a local presence

• TikTok, the video-sharing social media app popular with Gen Z, is making a move into the Australian market.

• Over the past week, nine local jobs listings have been posted on LinkedIn, including head of content and operations, head of communications, and legal counsel.

• Business Insider Australia has contacted TikTok for comment on its hiring spree.

• Visit Business Insider Australia's homepage for more stories.

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TikTok is expanding – and it has its eyes on Australia.

Over the past week, TikTok – which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance – has posted ads for nine local roles in Sydney, including head of content and operations, head of communications, and legal counsel. The hiring spree strongly suggests TikTok is shoring up its local presence.

The listing for the head of content and operations role says the successful candidate will "build a world class team and set the vision and strategy for the Australian market on the Tiktok platform."

"With a primary focus on audience development and content partnerships, you will be responsible for how we identify, prioritise and support our creators, partners and influencers in the Australian market," it reads.

Additionally, the company is also hiring commercial roles including brand strategists, account executives, partnerships managers and ad operations managers.

At present, Australian users of the app are delivered international ads, with no advertising for local companies and services. The listed jobs suggest this is likely to change in the near future.

Despite the current lack of local ad content, a number of Australian companies, like Dominos and the AFL, have been making use of TikTok as a marketing platform to push their brand.

According to listings on LinkedIn, TikTok already has a small human resources operation in Australia who are likely facilitating the hiring process.

TikTok has been contacted for comment on their Australian plans.

TikTok, despite controversies, had a very strong year

For TikTok, it seems the only direction is up.

In November, App analytics site Sensor Tower reported the short-form video app had been downloaded 1.5 billion times, outperforming Instagram.

It's estimated TikTok has somewhere in the region of 625 million monthly users globally, but it is difficult to ascertain just how fast the company's growth is – especially following its explosion in popularity among teens and young adults in 2019.

The company has also faced its share of controversy. Some issues are clearly growing pains for a social media platform experiencing massive growth – but others centre around TikTok's Chinese ownership.

In November, TikTok apologised to a 17-year-old girl who was suspended from the platform shortly after posting a series of videos condemning China’s alleged oppression of the Uighur Muslims.

For its part, TikTok denies it censors content on its app. In its first ever transparency report in early January, the company said China made no content removal or information requests in the first half of 2019, whereas the United States made 85 such requests.

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