BY AFP

The chief executive of Chinese social network TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, who on Thursday defended the company in the US Congress against accusations of undermining national security, is a former banker who has thrived in the technology sector.

Born in Singapore 40 years ago and with a down-to-earth personality, Chew attended the prestigious Hwa Chong School, before moving to Europe to study economics at University College London.

In the British capital, he worked at business bank Goldman Sachs and completed an internship at Facebook, before earning an MBA at Harvard Business School in the United States.

After several years working at investment firm DST, Chew, who speaks fluent Chinese and English, was appointed chief financial officer of Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi in 2015.

In March 2021, he joined ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, and quickly took over management of the app, after his predecessor, American Kevin Mayer, left abruptly.

– Political pressure –

While Chew runs the company from Singapore, according to TikTok, it’s unclear how much decision-making power he has compared to ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and other executives at the parent company.

For several months, the seemingly relaxed Singaporean executive had to deal with increasing political pressure on both sides of the Atlantic.

The White House, the European Commission and the Canadian and British governments have banned their officials from using the short video platform, which is hugely popular with young people.

US executives have hinted that if TikTok, which has more than 150 million monthly users in the United States, remains under ByteDance’s control, it will be banned.

Many regulators alleged that the app gave Beijing access to user data, which TikTok has always denied. And US lawmakers also fear the app will serve as a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party to manipulate public opinion.

“ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government,” Chew said at a congressional hearing Thursday.

– Wisdom –

Chew himself isn’t a huge TikTok user: he’s only posted about twenty videos since last year and has fewer than 20,000 followers.

Accordingly, some clips show her attending the Superbowl halftime show or dancing with pop star Ciara, but others focus on simpler subjects, such as a visit to the British Museum or a Halloween costume.

The chief executive of TikTok is married to the chief executive of the investment firm Vivian Kao, a former Harvard business school classmate whom he met via email in 2008.

They have two children and are so close that when speaking, “one often finishes the other’s sentences,” according to an article posted on the school’s website.

Like most Singaporean men, Chew served in the military as a young man, so proficient that he was commissioned, according to the Straits Times newspaper.

Under Singapore law, this means he must remain in the army reserve until he is 50 years old, a decade longer than men of other ranks.

The app he runs has surpassed YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in “time spent” on it by American adults, and is now hotly behind Netflix.