TikTok appoints Disney’s Kevin Mayer as Chief Executive
By MYBRANDBOOK
Kevin Mayer, the top streaming Executive has stepped down from his position to become Chief Executive of TikTok, the app for making and sharing short videos that has exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic.
He will also hold the position of Chief Operating Officer of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
“I was happy with my job at Disney,” Mayer said. “The magnitude of this opportunity was just something I couldn’t pass up.” He cited gaming and music as two expansion possibilities. (He sounded considerably less eager to post TikToks of himself.)
TikTok has been downloaded around 1.9 billion times worldwide which includes 172 million downloads in the United States, according to Sensor Tower, an app data firm. The popularity of the app has increased during the pandemic.
That popularity has made TikTok by far the biggest digital success for a Chinese-owned company in the Western world. As a result, it has faced deep distrust across the U.S. government. Several government agencies, including nearly all branches of the military, have banned employees from downloading or using the app. In March, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., proposed legislation to ban any federal employee from using it.
Both Republicans and Democrats have questioned the Chinese government’s influence over the app. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., co-wrote a letter to the director of national intelligence in October, requesting a review of the national-security implications of TikTok’s expanding influence.
Earlier, TikTok has also roped in a number of U.S. executives and employees to run its business and review content on its app. Vanessa Pappas, a former YouTube executive who joined TikTok as one of its American Chiefs last year.
Now Mayer will provide a clear link between TikTok and ByteDance’s leadership in Beijing, with his dual roles at the two companies.
Mayer joined Disney in 1993 before leaving in 2000 to run Playboy.com. He soon returned to Disney to work on Go.com, a web portal that eventually failed, and other Disney websites, including ESPN.com, before moving to strategic planning.
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