While it is common practice for Chinese tech firms to lay off underperformers at year’s end, the job cuts this time appear deeper than usual after a year of harsh regulatory tightening on the sector, reports South China Morning Post.

Hong Kong-listed Kuaishou has started to let go of employees who received low scores in performance reviews, according to three people familiar with the matter who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media told the newspaper.

Laid-off employees have been offered compensation based on the number of years they had served, plus one month’s salary, said reports.

“It has set off panic among a lot of people in the company because the lay-offs appear to start with highly-paid team leaders,” one of the sources told South China Morning Post.