TikTok said on Friday, April 30 that the company has appointed Singaporean Shou Zi Chew as the new chief executive officer of the popular video-sharing platform. TikTok is believed to have about 1 billion users worldwide including more than 100 million in the United States and is especially popular with young smartphone users.
Who is Shou Zi Chew?
Chew has attended college in London and has an MBA from Harvard. From 2015 to 2020. He served as Xiaomi’s chief financial officer and ran its international business for a year. After leaving Xiaomi to join TikTok’s parent ByteDance as chief financial officer last month, he will now also become CEO of TikTok.
Chew, who is based in Singapore, said, “We will continue building out our strong and deep management team as we set the stage for the next phase of TikTok’s success”.
Strategic appointments to optimize TikTok’s growth
TikTok’s interim head Vanessa Pappas, who led the company on an interim basis after the abrupt departure of its CEO last year, Kevin Mayer formerly of Walt Disney Co, will be the new chief operating officer.
The announcement was described as a “strategic reorganization to optimize TikTok’s global teams and support the company’s unprecedented growth”.
Yiming Zhang, founder and CEO of ByteDance said, “The leadership team of Shou and Vanessa sets the stage for sustained growth”. “Shou brings deep knowledge of the company and industry, having led a team that was among our earliest investors, and having worked in the technology sector for a decade. He will add depth to the team, focusing on areas including corporate governance and long-term business initiatives.”
The US plans on banning the app
The move comes after an effort by the administration of former President Donald Trump to ban TikTok in the United States or force a sale to an American-owned entity, over claims that the app could pose national security risks.
At least one report said the Biden administration had abandoned the Trump effort, which aimed to sell TikTok to US tech giant Oracle and retail power Walmart.
