Shou Chew - 41-year-old CEO steers TikTok amid the storms

A year ago, CEO Shou Zi Chew had to testify before the US Congress about the harmful effects of TikTok, and now the platform faces a ban.

On March 23, 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before the US bipartisan group to answer a series of questions related to the platform's harmful effects on 150 million US users, and suspicions related to data sending. of users to China, and asked ByteDance to divest capital from TikTok.

A full year later, TikTok's risk of selling itself or ceasing operations in the US is gradually becoming a reality. On March 13, the US House of Representatives passed a bill forcing ByteDance to divest capital from TikTok within six months or face the risk of being banned from the US. The bill now needs additional Senate approval and President Joe Biden's signature.

Shou Zi Chew at a US House of Representatives hearing in Washington DC in March 2023. Photo: Reuters

According to Business Insider , two events caused many people to focus more attention on Chew, especially how he led TikTok before the big incident. During last year's hearing, Chew's answers were said to be unconvincing , but the platform has still added tens of millions of users since then.

Chew previously worked for Meta, Xiaomi and parent company ByteDance. His assumption of the CEO position in mid-2021 took place quietly, the company's official TikTok account did not even have a welcome message.

Chew was born on January 1, 1983 in Singapore, his mother worked in accounting and his father worked in the construction field. After graduating from high school, he entered military service and became a corporal in the Singapore army.

Afterwards, Chew continued to study economics at University College London and received a bachelor's degree in 2006. In 2010, he completed a master's degree in business administration at Harvard Business School and worked as an intern at Facebook. During that period, Chew met Vivian Kao, from Taiwan. Both are married and have two children aged 8 and 6 years old. During last year's hearing, he admitted that his two children do not use TikTok .

Chew then joined venture capital firm DST Global, where he led a group of investors to invest in ByteDance in 2013. Two years later, he worked as chief financial officer for Xiaomi, before becoming president. In charge of international business of the Chinese phone company since 2019.

In March 2021, Chew took on the role of chief financial officer of ByteDance. When Kevin Mayer stepped down as CEO of TikTok in June of the same year, he became the new leader of the short video platform.

"Chew brings deep company and sector knowledge, having been among our earliest investors and having been in the technology industry for a decade," ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming said at the time.

According to Wired , since becoming CEO of TikTok, Chew has shown that he has enough qualities to keep the platform growing strongly in terms of users, while still maintaining a moderate attitude towards countries. "He doesn't display the typical 'technological energy' of his colleagues. Instead, he's like someone who regularly runs for town mayor: handsome, charming and with an intimidating presence." curious," this page commented in an interview with Chew earlier this year.

In fact, at last year's hearing, Chew appeared to be a moderate. He slowly answered questions from both parties, even though they did not satisfy most lawmakers in the room. But he is also willing to admit issues that could harm TikTok itself, such as the platform transferring American user data to China; or meet the demand from the US that TikTok needs to store American data on servers in the US.

However, with the request that TikTok divest or be banned, Chew immediately objected. He emphasized that the platform operates independently from the parent company in Beijing, and TikTok's headquarters are located in Singapore and Los Angeles.

However, the peak of Chew's reaction is said to have occurred last week. On March 13, when the US House of Representatives passed the bill, he immediately went to the company's TikTok page, calling on users to protest. "I encourage you to continue to share our story with your friends, with your family, with your senators. Protect your constitutional rights," Chew said in the video.

He also argued that the bill was only meant to protect TikTok's competitors, rather than American users. "The bill gives more power to some other social media companies, and will take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses. It will also put more than 300,000 Americans at risk of financial loss." jobs," he said.

According to OBServer , Chew's rare message to users shows the seriousness of the prospect of TikTok being banned. Before that, he rarely appeared in front of the media or gave exclusive interviews.

In everyday life, Chew enjoys playing Clash of Clans and Diablo IV , playing golf, and reading about theoretical physics. He also attended some major events such as Super Bowl 2023 and Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. However, when asked by Wired about his idol, he did not name any music or sports star, but Lee Kuan Yew - the man who founded and helped Singapore become as prosperous as it is today.

Bao Lam

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