Why Xavier Niel, the boss of Free, is joining the management of TikTok

According to an article published by Numeramawe learn that Xavier Niel is joining the board of directors of ByteDance, the parent company of the social network TikTok. An arrival on the board while the application is targeted by multiple risks of banning.

A new investment

If Xavier Niel is known in France mainly as the co-founder of Free, the businessman is multiplying his activities and investments. It has been almost 10 years since he launched the 42 schools intended to train developers with free and certified training. More recently, he can be found in the artificial intelligence sector with Kyutai, which sees itself competing with other chatbots such as ChatGPT. Xavier Niel is an investor who loves technology. A quality portfolio that will certainly have convinced the other members of the board.

Xavier Niel will serve as the European figure and replace Philippe Laffont, founder of Coatue Management, an investment management firm. He will join Rubo Liang, chairman of the board and co-founder of ByteDance.

While this announcement may come as a surprise, it remains an extremely strategic choice for the company.

Reassuring Europe

The application is indeed targeted by various European and American regulatory institutions. This new social network has experienced meteoric growth since its launch and is massively establishing itself among its peers. A first question that was raised concerned the private data of its users. Despite a service based in Singapore, the fear of seeing the data sucked up by the Chinese government persists. A concern shared by the European Union, which also indicates that it wants to protect the data of minor users.

Xavier Niel’s arrival on the board of directors could signal a desire for stronger interaction with Europe and perhaps ease existing tensions. In the meantime, the boss is preparing to take to the stage at the Olympia on September 18 to give a presentation on “How to become a billionaire?”.