Shouzi Chew to be new CEO of TikTok

ByteBance Chief Financial Officer Shouzi Chew to be new Chief Executive Officer of TikTok. Shouzi Chew is a Singaporean national and currently associated with ByteDance, which is a Chinese company owning TikTok.

Yiming Zhang, Founder and CEO of ByteDance, said “Shou brings deep knowledge of the company and industry, having led a team that was among our earliest investors. He will add depth to the team, focusing on areas including corporate governance and long-term business initiatives.”

Alex Zhu, who is former TikTok head, had to leave the role as the company was reportedly facing scrutiny over data privacy in late 2020.  Zhu was the co-founder of the same app called Musical.ly, which was acquired by ByteDance for about $1 billion and then re-branded it as TikTok, the famous app.

“The personal data of millions of U.S. users are stored in Virginia, with backups in Singapore.” said the company.

After many accusations of national security-related issues, last year, it ramped up back with its engineering and moderation team situated in Mountain View, California, trying to base these data-sensitive positions directly outside of China.

Shouzi Chew, the new CEO, attended college in London and has a master’s in MBA from Harvard. From 2015 to 2020, He has previously served as Xiaomi’s CFO and ran its international business for more than a year time.

“We will continue building out our strong and deep management team as we set the stage for the next phase of TikTok’s success.” Shouzi Chew said.

Also, Kevin Mayer, formerly head of Walt Disney Co, will be the new Chief Operating Officer.

TikTok f=been faced heavy scrutiny during the tenure of former President of U.S, Donald Trump’s administration. TikTok has denied the accusations. After many such accusations of national security-related issues, last year, it ramped up back with its engineering and moderation team situated in Mountain View, California, trying to base these data-sensitive positions directly outside of China.