Inside the hunt for TikTok’s new CEO—and what’s next for the world’s hottest app: by abebrown716
And if Mayer delivers for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance what he did for Disney during more than two decades there, the payoff could be even greater.
Which explains why ByteDance’s billionaire CEO, 36-year-old Zhang Yiming, wasted no time in courting Mayer to replace the person who’d been running TikTok from China, Alex Zhu. Even before Mayer’s arrival, TikTokan idea for a reality-style TV show around Hollywood, although the details for that plan aren’t entirely clear.
Mayer clearly fit the bill as the executive credited with building Disney’s lone bright spot in a business crushed by the pandemic: Disney+, the wildly successful streaming service. He had the digital and strategic chops Zhang needed to get TikTok to the next level. “He was a reluctant candidate at first because he had such an important role at Disney,” says ByteDance board member Bill Ford, who was involved in the recruitment effort. Mayer’s interest grew over numerous conversations with the Chinese internet entrepreneur, whom Ford likened to Alibaba founder Jack Ma–conducted via video chat because of the pandemic. “It’s kind of an interesting courtship. I guess that’s the world we’re in.
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