As a Singapore Army veteran and Harvard Business School alum, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has proven he can handle himself under pressure during his recent grilling on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers from both parties are pushing for a possible nationwide ban of the popular video-sharing app.
TikTok, which is controlled by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, has been the subject of increased calls for a ban in recent days due to security concerns. Concerns have been raised about the safety of the platform’s youngest users and the way in which content on TikTok is moderated.
The rise of TikTok has added complexity to the problem. With more than 150 million users in the United States alone, the app has quickly become a formidable competitor to Facebook and Snapchat.
For ByteDance, Chew’s arrival in the CFO role was a highlight of March 2021. In that year, he was promoted to the position of the chief executive officer at TikTok succeeding Kevin Mayer a former executive at Disney. Mayer lasted only three months in the position before resigning.
Before Founding TikTok, Where did Chew work?
Chew spent time in the Singaporean military before taking a job as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs in London. Chew graduated with an MBA from Harvard and interned at Facebook afterward.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Chew later joined DST Global, where he became the firm’s “China-focused partner” due to his command of the Mandarin language. Chew was one of the company’s first investors in ByteDance back in 2013, during his time there as group leader.
Before joining TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, Chew worked at Chinese smartphone firm Xiaomi, where he held the post of CFO among other jobs.
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What Purpose did Chew appear before the US Congress?
Specifically, the House Energy and Commerce Committee wanted Chew to discuss “consumer privacy and data security procedures, the platforms’ impact on youngsters, and their relationship with the Chinese Communist Party” on the platform.
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