New Boss for Video App TikTok

The popular video app TikTok has appointed Shouzi Chew as the company’s new CEO. Chew is also the financial director of parent company ByteDance and will continue in that role.

Vanessa Pappas, who currently heads TikTok as interim boss, will become an operational director. The shifts at the top are necessary for a strategic reorganization, according to TikTok. The company did not disclose exactly what this change, of course, entails.

TikTok owner ByteDance was reportedly working on an IPO. But according to the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, it was eventually postponed because the tech company could not meet the requirements of both China and the United States.

Chinese authorities have been increasing their controls on significant tech companies in the country for some time. Under Donald Trump, the United States accused TikTok of passing on personal data to the Chinese Communist Party. There are also many international concerns about the privacy of the often young users of the app.

TikTok has had a stormy course at the top. The former boss of Disney’s streaming division, Kevin Mayer, took office as the top boss of the popular app in May last year. Three months later, he left again because of the imminent ban that the US president wanted to enact on TikTok. Vanessa Pappas then replaced Mayer temporarily.

Chew was the financial chief of Xiaomi, a major Chinese manufacturer of smartphones and other electronics, from 2015 to 2020. He also headed that company’s international division for a year. Chew, who lives and works in Singapore, has been financially responsible for ByteDance since the beginning of this year.