After a short-lived stint as TikTok chief, Musical.ly co-founder Alex Zhu is returning to his ‘primary passion’
- India is the biggest growth driver for TikTok followed by China, with 611 million and 196.6 million total downloads, respectively
- Mayer, who will report directly to Zhang Yiming, will also serve as the chief operating officer of ByteDance
TikTok head Alex Zhu has moved to a new role as vice-president of product and strategy for its parent company ByteDance to make way for a Disney executive to head up the popular short video app, as it faces ongoing scrutiny over data privacy and censorship issues.
TikTok’s owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, announced on Tuesday that it has hired The Walt Disney Co’s top streaming executive Kevin Mayer as the new CEO of TikTok, as it builds on its gains as the world’s fastest growing short video app.
“Kevin's wealth of experience building successful global businesses makes him an outstanding fit for our mission of inspiring creativity for users globally,” Zhang Yiming, founder and chief executive of ByteDance, said in a blog post.
Mayer, who will report directly to Zhang, will also serve as chief operating officer of ByteDance, leading its music, gaming and emerging businesses, including the Helo social media platform in India.
A ByteDance representative said the company had no further comment on the matter.
In March, Zhang wrote in a letter posted on the company’s WeChat official account that he would put more effort into the US and Europe markets, and “improve the global management team together with Alex Zhu”.