TikTok has appointed Chew Shou Zi, previously president of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, as its newest chief executive.

The Singaporean joined ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in March as chief financial officer.

TikTok said Zi led a team in 2013 that became one of the earliest investors in ByteDance and he will continue to be based in his hometown of Singapore.

Vanessa Pappas, who was previously serving as interim head, will also take on the role of TikTok’s chief operating officer, continuing with her current responsibilities.

Pappas joined TikTok at the end of 2018 after holding other senior roles in the video platform industry including at YouTube.

Kevin Mayer, TikTok’s former chief executive and Disney veteran left the company in August 2020 after just three months, on account of a 'sharply changed' political environment in the US.

Mayer’s move followed Donald Trump threatening to ban the company in the US if it did not sell its US operations to a US based company.

TikTok for Business, TikTok’s marketing solutions division, claim that one in four Britons use TikTok every month, and 17 million spend over an hour a day on the app.

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