TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew during his hearing by the US Congress on March 23, 2023 in Washington (AFP / OLIVIER DOULIERY)
The CEO of the Chinese social network TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, heard Thursday by elected members of the United States Congress accusing the popular application of undermining national security, is a former banker who has known a rapid rise in the technology sector.
His hearing by a powerful parliamentary committee, while the application belonging to the Chinese group ByteDance risks total banning in the United States, is a first for the 40-year-old businessman, with a discreet personality.
Born in Singapore, Mr Chew attended the prestigious Hwa Chong School, before flying to Europe to study economics at University College London.
Also in London, he took on the banker’s costume for Goldman Sachs and also completed an internship at Facebook, before obtaining an MBA at Harvard Business School.
After several years with the investment company DST, Shou Chew, who speaks fluent Mandarin and English, was appointed in 2015 as chief financial officer of the Chinese telephony giant Xiaomi.
He joined ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in March 2021 and quickly took over running the app, following the sudden resignation of his predecessor, American Kevin Mayer.
– political pressure –
While Mr. Chew runs the company from Singapore, according to TikTok, however, it’s unclear how much decision-making power he has relative to ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and other executives at the parent company.
For several months, the relaxed-looking Singaporean leader has had to deal with political pressure that has skyrocketed on both sides of the Atlantic.
The White House, the European Commission and the Canadian and British governments have banned their officials from using the short and viral video platform, which is very popular among young people.
The White House has hinted that if TikTok – which has more than 150 million monthly users in the United States – remained under ByteDance, it would be banned.
Many regulators suspect the app of giving Beijing access to user data, which it has always denied. And elected officials also fear that the application will serve as a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party to manipulate public opinion.
“Let me state unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew is expected to tell lawmakers in the US Congress, according to comments made public ahead of the hearing.
“TikTok has never shared or received a request to share data from American users with the Chinese government. TikTok would also not honor such a request if it were made”, should defend the boss of TikTok.
– Low profile –
Shou Chew himself is not a big TikTok user: he has posted about 20 videos since last year and only has around 20,000 subscribers.
On his account, some videos show him attending the Superbowl halftime show or dancing with the singer Ciarail, while he shares in other extracts his visit to the British Museum or his costume worn in the occasion of Halloween.
TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew makes a statement to the press before his hearing by the US Congress on March 23, 2023 in Washington (AFP / OLIVIER DOULIERY)
The leader of TikTok is married to Vivian Kao, CEO of an investment company, a former classmate of Harvard Business School with whom he had started by exchanging by email in 2008, shortly after their admission.
According to an article on the school’s website, they have two children and are so close that they “often finish each other’s sentences.”
Like most Singaporean men, Mr Chew did his military service as a youth, with such success that he was commissioned, according to the Straits Times newspaper.
Under Singaporean law, this means he is required to remain an army reservist until the age of 50, ten years longer than men of other ranks.
Its application has already surpassed YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in “time spent” on it by American adults, and is now on the heels of Netflix.
© 2023 AFP
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