TikTok is clever to appoint a Disney character as its new chief executive. US lawmaker concerns about the app’s security have weighed on Chinese parent company ByteDance. A reassuringly homegrown executive was needed. Offering the job to Disney’s former head of streaming Kevin Mayer suggests big plans are afoot. Whether those plans involve TikTok striking out alone is unclear.
TikTok was created when ByteDance mimicked and then acquired US app Musical.ly. Wildly popular for its seconds-long, user-made videos, it is the most successful new social media platform since Snapchat. Lockdown boredom has extended its appeal even more widely beyond teenage early adopters. By the end of April, TikTok and Chinese counterpart Douyin had exceeded 2bn downloads, according to data company Sensor Tower.
If TikTok was spun out of ByteDance the obvious comparison would be US social media company Snap. ByteDance, which has a potential valuation of $75bn based on its last funding round, may chafe at this comparison. TikTok has more users and a global audience. But like TikTok, Snap’s social media platform was fast growing and targeted a younger demographic than Facebook when it listed in 2017. Its $24bn valuation was 59 times trailing sales.