- Nicholas Yong
- BBC reporter from Singapore
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TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi is expected to face strong questioning from US lawmakers
At a time when global skepticism over TikTok is growing and could lead to a U.S. ban on the Chinese app, the spotlight is now on the company’s enigmatic chief executive, Shou Zi Chew.
The 40-year-old Singaporean will testify to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday (March 23) about the app’s data security and privacy protections, as well as its alleged ties to Beijing. Commerce Committee) testified.
Little is known about how he works, or even how much power he actually wields at the company.
Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas (Vanessa Pappas) has always been the representative of TikTok to the public, and she was grilled by Congress in September last year over the flow of data from the United States to China.
In September last year, a character report published by The New York Times quoted former TikTok and ByteDance (ByteDance) executives as saying that Zhou’s funded ability to make decisions was limited, and ByteDance’s founder Zhang Yiming had mastered it. The power of the company.
But now, as TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government come under scrutiny, TikTok has brought Zhou Shouzi publicly to the fore.
Last June, in a letter to members of Congress, the company emphasized that it operated independently of its parent company, ByteDance, and strongly pointed out that Zhou’s funding did not come from China, but “Singapore based in Singapore”. people”.
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In just three years after its appearance, Douyin’s market share has surpassed all Western social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Born and raised in the city-state, he attended Hwa Chong Institution, an elite Chinese school in Singapore, and speaks fluent English and Mandarin. During his military service, he was an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces – a highly respected position.
After earning a BA in Economics from University College London, Zhou Shouzi went to Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA and interned at social media giant Facebook when it was still in its infancy .
According to media reports, he spent five years at the investment company Digital Sky Technology (DST), leading a team. The team later became early investors in ByteDance in 2013. He also spent two years as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
After being funded, Zhou took a key role at Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone giant, as chief financial officer and president of international business before taking the company public in 2018.
He jumped to ByteDance in March 2021 and became the first chief financial officer of the media giant.
He was back as TikTok CEO just two months later, when his predecessor, Kevin Mayer, abruptly resigned as the Trump administration tried to force TikTok to sell its U.S. assets.
most significant challenge
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Since 2020, TikTok executives have repeatedly tried to reassure the public that Chinese employees cannot access the data of non-Chinese users.
Now, Zhou Shouzi faces the biggest challenge of his TikTok career. U.S. lawmakers have demanded that the company divest from its U.S. operations or face a ban.
This issue has also become a point of contradiction for the Chinese.
The state-run Global Times said in a commentary on Tuesday that what was driving the TikTok ban was the “toxic U.S. political environment” that would violate the principles of the free market. The newspaper said, “In the eyes of US officials and politicians, TikTok’s Chinese background is an’original sin’.”
Faced with intense scrutiny from both sides, Zhou Shouzi appears to have engaged in some sort of charm offensive in recent months.
He opened his TikTok account @shou.time in February to showcase bits and pieces of his personal life — nearly a year after he took the platform’s helm. Since then, Zhou’s 18,000 followers have seen him attend Super Bowls and NBA games, meet stars like Bill Murray, and dance with singer Ciara. There was a “gathering dance”.
He made good use of media resources, revealing in interviews that he is a golf enthusiast and a fan of comedian Kevin Hart. His wife is Vivian Kao, CEO of the investment company. The father of two has also said he doesn’t allow his children to play TikTok because they are “too young.”
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In just three years after its appearance, Douyin’s market share has surpassed all Western social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Recently, he has walked around the major media in the United States, repeatedly assuring that TikTok will not pose a threat to the interests of the United States.
He also turned directly to US users. In Washington on Monday, he posted a video through his official TikTok account, inviting users to tell him what they wanted to say to members of the U.S. Congress.
The video received more than 500,000 likes. He said in it: “This is a critical moment for us. This may take TikTok away from 150 million of you.”