ByteDance, the maker of TikTok is silently making moves to shift its research and decision-making processes out of China gradually. Entitling the Disney’s Kevin Mayer as CEO of TikTok is just a part of this strategy. Other than him, ByteDance has also recruited 150 engineers in California, and many executives for handling investors and privacy issues globally. All these would help ByteDance to pump trust in its future makings, analysts say.
Trump’s administration has turned the US to be paranoiac about any Chinese offerings. Falling prey for such actions is numerous Chinese companies, including Huawei and TikTok. While the former was being slashed with trade bans, the latter was strongly advised to eliminate. All because of privacy issues. Trump pumped the feeling of being spied while using Chinese goods, so lashing them with possible bans.
Acquiring One by One
And to tackle this around, TikTok’s owner, ByteDance has been poaching several executives and employees worldwide. Starting with Michelle Huang, a former SoftBank investor who worked throughout ByteDance’s funding by a Japanese firm. ByteDance has also acquired a New York-based investor relations manager to communicate with its investors, General Atlantic and KKR.
And the latest one to join the firm was Disney’s streaming chief, Kevin Mayer. He was made CEO of TikTok, hoping to come handy while dealing with US tensions. Alongside executives, ByteDance has also hired 150 engineers in California! It’s also actively hiring data and security engineers to handle platform security and others.
Further, some job postings from ByteDance show the company is also hiring engineers from Singapore, Jakarta, and Warsaw. It’s said that ByteDance has also approached a few Google employees to play some roles. After all, TikTok is popular among American youth too. But regulators have advised not to use it citing security concerns.
Apart from being Chinese and privacy issues, TikTok has been actively criticized for its content genres. It just trended in India last week in YouTube vs TikTok fight, where fans blamed each other and hit Playstore for downgrading ratings. So, actions from ByteDance of moving out from China could help spread its nativity proportionally.
Source: Reuters
