TikTok gets new product head from Douyin in latest ByteDance reshuffle between China and international businesses

Fiona Zhi Ying moved from vice-president of Douyin to head product development at TikTok, as ByteDance tries to further monetise its massive user base
Amid heightened political scrutiny in the US, questions have been raised about connections between ByteDance’s China and international operations

TikTok

Coco Fengin Beijing

Published: 6:00pm, 2 Feb 2023

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ByteDance has appointed Fiona Zhi Ying as team lead for TikTok product development, moving her over from her former role of vice-president of Douyin, as the tech unicorn tries to replicate its success in generating revenue on the Chinese version of the popular short video app in overseas markets.

A ByteDance representative said Zhi will work across Singapore and the US in her new role and report to the head of product and engineering for TikTok, Zhu Wenjia. Zhu reports to TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi, who is based in Singapore.

ByteDance has been trying to further monetise TikTok’s 1 billion monthly active users, as it has done at home with Douyin, both of which are developed from a common code base. Douyin has 600 million daily active users in China, where ByteDance generates revenue from advertising, e-commerce and localised services.

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However, TikTok is facing greater headwinds overseas amid growing political mistrust, especially in the US.

Zhi was born in 1992 and joined ByteDance in 2016, according to Chinese tech media outlet 36Kr, which first reported the executive’s new role. Prior to that, she worked at the auditing firm PwC and ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies. She graduated from the Tianjin University, 36kr reported.

Her subordinates at TikTok include Gill Tan Siqi, head of core product, Mabel Wang Shuaiding, who oversees content and creators, and Wang Yinglei, the head of live streaming, a person familiar with the matter at ByteDance told the South China Morning Post. All three previously reported to Zhu, the person said.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and previously worked with Zhi, referred to the new TikTok product head as “hard-working”.

The latest personnel reshuffle follows a move in December that brought Kevin Chen Xi over to TikTok from ByteDance’s news aggregator app Jinri Toutiao. Formerly the president of the news app, Chen now leads TikTok’s e-commerce product and data operations.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on November 16, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

TikTok has faced mounting political backlash in the US over its ties to China and national security concerns. In December 2022, US President Joe Biden signed into law a measure prohibiting federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices. As of Thursday, at least 32 states had also banned the app on government networks or devices.

Media reports on ByteDance’s management structure have also cast doubt on the company’s assurances that TikTok is independent of its operations in China.

The Information reported last month that Sandie Hawkins, TikTok’s US head of e-commerce, reports to Bob Kang, ByteDance’s e-commerce head, who reports to ByteDance’s China chairman Zhang Lidong. Neither Hawkins nor Kang report to TikTok’s chief executive.

In March, Chew will testify before the US Congress, where he is expected to answer a range of questions about TikTok’s privacy and data security practices, its impact on young users, and “its relationship to the Chinese Communist Party”.

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