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TikTok’s New CEO
It was only in 2019 that TikTok began to display advertising. Brands open user accounts on TikTok and create mini-videos, which they then promote on the app for a fee. TikTok is the world’s most popular social media app, with more than a billion downloads across 150 markets and 75 languages. As of January 2020, it has 104.7 million downloads, with 69% of the users being between the ages of 13 and 24.
Shou Zi Chew
The Chief Executive Officer of TikTok is Singaporean-born Shou Zi Chew. He is the company’s CEO, and the company is on the fast track to an IPO. Shou Zi Chew holds a B.Sc in economics from University College London. After earning his MBA at Harvard Business School in 2010, he worked for a startup in Hong Kong called Facebook before returning to Singapore with his wife.
Since the app’s creation, China and the United States have been locked in a geopolitical standoff. However, this hasn’t dampened TikTok’s rise. Earlier this year, the company announced that Chew would become the company’s permanent CEO. Chew, who was CFO at ByteDance for a brief period, has been focusing on the Singapore-based startup.
Shou Zi Chew’s parents
The entrepreneur studied economics at University College London and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. Upon graduation, Chew worked at several tech and finance firms. He spent three years as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, focused on technology investments. Afterwards, he joined DST Investment Management as a partner, where he worked for five years. Today, Chew has a net worth of 200 million dollars.
Before joining TikTok, Shou Zi Chew worked as a Xiaomi executive before being named CEO. Before taking the helm of the company, he studied at Harvard Business School and University College London. After graduating, he worked in Beijing and Hong Kong before settling in Singapore with his wife from Harvard. His parents did not disclose any information about him, but he completed a high school education in Singapore. His education also includes a Master’s degree in business administration from Harvard.
Shou Zi Chew’s company
As the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew has been attracting attention from investors. While he has a long history of building successful companies, his new role is sure to increase the company’s popularity. Earlier this month, he told reporters that he plans to separate the data of American users from those of his Chinese parent company ByteDance. In addition, TikTok will house the data on Oracle servers and audits will be conducted by a third party.
The app’s popularity has been driven by its algorithm, which was first introduced in 2011. ByteDance hired Chew to lead the company after Kevin Mayer resigned last year. The move signals a shift toward growing the company’s Asian roots and continuing the company’s charm offensive. However, it is not yet clear whether Chew’s appointment will be enough to turn the company around.
ByteDance
ByteDance is an Internet startup founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. He is a son of civil workers in Longyan, China, and studied software engineering and microelectronics at Nankai University. In August 2012, the company launched Jinri Toutiao, a social media platform that serves hyper-targeted ads and content to users. In mid-2018, it had over 200 million DAUs, or daily active users, and they spent an average of 74 minutes on the service per day.
After the success of the social video app, ByteDance plans to add a variety of features to its platform. It is likely that it will adopt some features from Douyin, which was built around finding the next generation of creators. It is expected that TikTok will use these features to make the platform more profitable for creators, and to encourage users to spend more time on mobile.
Tencent
In 2018, Tencent launched its PCG, a multi-platform group that comprises mobile internet, social networks, and online media operations. The company has also been strengthening short-video-sharing features and live-streaming capabilities in the past two years. But despite these efforts, Tencent is still not in a position to match the success of Douyin. It is still unclear whether or not Tencent can take on the rival in the global video market.
While TikTok’s popularity in China is undoubtedly growing, the Chinese company still faces many challenges. In addition to a potentially shaky regulatory environment, it is working to add more revenue generation tools to influencers, and distance itself from its Chinese roots. The company has also been experimenting with competing apps, including Kuaishou, which is owned by Tencent. Meanwhile, Facebook quietly launched a competitor called Lasso last November.
