Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Shouzi Chew

Transcript

Shouzi Chew · The David Rubenstein Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: More than one million people around the world visit TikTok
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: every month, but with immense growth comes scrutiny and competition.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: In this episode of the David Rubinstein Show Peer to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Peer Conversations, I sit down with TikTok CEO shows E
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: two to discuss TikTok's future and also find out if
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I could become TikTok famous. Now. I am older than
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: many of your TikTok followers. I believe I maybe you
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: have some people my age, but my impression is it's
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for younger people. Is that wrong? There is really something
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: for everyone on TikTok. I would I would have you
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: installed TikTok yet do it? Well? I'm not an expert
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  Speaker 1: on TikTok. I have looked at it, but I haven't
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  Speaker 1: seen anything that you know looks like me. I think
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  Speaker 1: you may be surprised, uh. For for example, for example,
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  Speaker 1: there was something called book talk on on TikTok. It
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  Speaker 1: is a hashtag and it really is a trend where
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  Speaker 1: people share short videos on their favorite books. And you'd
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  Speaker 1: be probce how many views they have. We have forty
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  Speaker 1: billion views on book talk alone. There are many other categories.
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  Speaker 1: There is clean talk, which is about people cleaning thirty
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  Speaker 1: billion views. You know, I personally am a very amateur golfer.
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  Speaker 1: Hashtag golf has more than ten billion views on TikTok
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  Speaker 1: as well, So I believe there is something for everyone.
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  Speaker 1: The way we want to present this is we have
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  Speaker 1: a machine learning recommendation engine which personalizes your experience when
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  Speaker 1: you use TikTok, and we believe there's something for you
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  Speaker 1: as well. Okay, so can anybody put a video on TikTok, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: very easily. All right, How do you control of somebody
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  Speaker 1: puts something on that's dangerous or pornographic or or not appropriate.
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  Speaker 1: This is a great question. One of the most important
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: things that I have been focusing on since I took
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  Speaker 1: on the role nearly a year ago. It's on the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: safety of our platform is something we take absolutely seriously,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and we have elevated this as a top priority for
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  Speaker 1: myself and for the company. We put a significant amount
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  Speaker 1: of investment into it h and we believe that we
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: need to continue to invest in trust and safety to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: stay ahead of our growth because of the growth of
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  Speaker 1: the platform. So, for example, making sure that making sure
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that our community guidelines which are published transparently online, are
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: well understood by our users, making sure that we have
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  Speaker 1: the tools and the capabilities to ensure a safe environment,
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  Speaker 1: a safe and inclusive environment on our platform, so that
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: our users feelings I feel like feel that is a
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  Speaker 1: trusted environment to to publish and to inspire the creativity
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: they want to. So let's suppose I want to be
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a TikTok person. I want to be on TikTok, but
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  Speaker 1: I have to make a living. Um can I make
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  Speaker 1: a living by just being on TikTok or the people
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that make a living just by being on TikTok. Most
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  Speaker 1: of our users come on TikTok to to share how
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  Speaker 1: they feel into to inspire, you know, to inspire the world.
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  Speaker 1: But there are people who come on TikTok, and this
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  Speaker 1: is something we're extremely proud of. Um. We have an
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  Speaker 1: able them. We have given them the platform and the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: tools to actually make a proper living. And most of
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  Speaker 1: these are small businesses or individuals. I can give you
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  Speaker 1: an example. I have been looking at my own TikTok
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  Speaker 1: recently and I saw this video on t case Surf
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  Speaker 1: and Turf. It is a restaurant in Denver. I think
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  Speaker 1: it's the first black owned, family operated seafood restaurant in Denver. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: What I've heard is during the pandemic, business was poor
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  Speaker 1: for a lot of restaurants, including them. But what what
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  Speaker 1: one creator did was to create videos on what, you know,
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  Speaker 1: how great the restaurant was. It became an overnight sensation.
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  Speaker 1: It went viral, and our business is booming for for
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that company. So and there are thousands upon thousands of
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  Speaker 1: examples like that across the US and across the world.
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  Speaker 1: And well, you know, this is something that we are
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  Speaker 1: immensely proud of that we have a platform the small
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  Speaker 1: businesses can make use of to get to grow their business.
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  Speaker 1: Spose I want to be a TikTok performer and I
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  Speaker 1: want to get paid for it. Do I do something
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  Speaker 1: that says this restaurant is great and hopefully restaurant won't
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  Speaker 1: pay me. Is that how people get paid by being
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  Speaker 1: on TikTok. There are several mechanisms to do it. The
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  Speaker 1: first is if you become if you have enough followers,
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  Speaker 1: certain brands will get in touch with you, either through
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  Speaker 1: us or otherwise two for you to represent their brand,
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  Speaker 1: So you become the brand ambassador. So that's one way.
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  Speaker 1: Some of our creators get paid. Beyond that, we have
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  Speaker 1: provided them with tools to monetize, you know, to get
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  Speaker 1: in touch with the followers and the monetize that that
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  Speaker 1: that as well. For example, we have a live streaming service,
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  Speaker 1: so as a creator, you can you can launch, you
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  Speaker 1: can have a live streaming session and that is an exclusive,
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  Speaker 1: exclusive session where you can interact with the followers and
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  Speaker 1: your followers can give you virtual gifts, and that's one
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  Speaker 1: way you can monetize. The other example is e commerce.
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  Speaker 1: We provide our creators with the tools to be able
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  Speaker 1: to sell merchandise on the atform as well. This is
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  Speaker 1: do a new part of our business, but it's something
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  Speaker 1: that people are very very excited about. How do you
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  Speaker 1: make money? Then other words, somebody goes on TikTok and
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  Speaker 1: they're making money for this restaurant in in Denver, How
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  Speaker 1: do you make any money? We make money primarily through
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  Speaker 1: advertising and also providing services like live streaming and decommon
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  Speaker 1: style uses. And we we do have a service fee
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: that that we charge to provide those services. But if
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  Speaker 1: somebody just uploads their video on TikTok, do they pay
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  Speaker 1: you a fee for that or not? No, it's absolutely free.
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  Speaker 1: Are there companies now that specialized in making people TikTok stars.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody says, I want to be on TikTok. I want
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: people to watch me. Maybe I can sell my my
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  Speaker 1: services to an advertising company or some way. Um, there
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  Speaker 1: are the people that polish up people's TikTok presentations the
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  Speaker 1: way our platform works, and my advice to anyone who
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  Speaker 1: wants to be famous on our platform is to just
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: beat themselves. What we have found is that this community
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  Speaker 1: is is This community wants real tent, They want the
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  Speaker 1: real roar content. They want to see people being themselves.
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  Speaker 1: So um, the many people tell me it's a breath
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  Speaker 1: of fresh air, is the sunny corner of the internet.
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  Speaker 1: So my advice to anyone who wants to be famous
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  Speaker 1: is really to beat themselves. So recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: at his quarterly earnings after explaining why the stock went
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: down by as a result of the declining use of Facebook,
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  Speaker 1: he attributed to TikTok and TikTok was becoming a big rival.
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  Speaker 1: He said, how did it feel to be blamed by
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Mark Zuckerberg for the decline and value of Facebook? We
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  Speaker 1: are a very young company at this point, and they
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  Speaker 1: are still very big competitors in the market. Some of
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  Speaker 1: them have been around for a long time with a
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  Speaker 1: lot of resources. So the way we look at it,
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  Speaker 1: there's still a long way for us to go in
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: terms of achieving the mission that we want to achieve.
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  Speaker 1: We think that there are a number of things that
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  Speaker 1: makes us unique in the market. The first is that
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  Speaker 1: we are pineers in what we do. We have innovated
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  Speaker 1: this form of short video combined with a four you feed,
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  Speaker 1: and we are confident that in the coming years we
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: will continue to innovate on that front and bring the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: best and the most interesting value proposition to our use this.
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  Speaker 1: So if Mark Zuckerberg we're here, would just say, don't
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  Speaker 1: worry about us, We're not a big competition to you,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: or we'll just say we're coming after you. I think
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  Speaker 1: for us, David, we are more focused on ourselves. I
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: think over the long run, the biggest competitor that we
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  Speaker 1: have as Cliche is going to sound is going to
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: be ourselves. We have a mission which is to inspire
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  Speaker 1: creativity and to bring joy, and we believe that our
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  Speaker 1: most important focus is to focus on delivering that mission.
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  Speaker 1: But let me ask you this, most of the large
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  Speaker 1: Chinese technology companies. Let's say Ali Baba, Bai Do ten Cent.
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  Speaker 1: They have gigantic market values and they're very prominent in China.
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  Speaker 1: Not as prominent outside of China as obviously in China,
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  Speaker 1: and certainly not that prominent the United States. TikTok, by contrast,
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  Speaker 1: is not in China, but it's gigantic outside of China,
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  Speaker 1: the United States and everywhere. What did TikTok do that
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  Speaker 1: enabled a Chinese based company parent company at least to
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  Speaker 1: do so well outside of China. We think it's challenging
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: to build a global company in general, but the best
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  Speaker 1: ones we have seen so far are ones that take
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  Speaker 1: very consistent global learnings in adapt them to the local,
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  Speaker 1: to the local, to the local countries that they are
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  Speaker 1: operating in. So you need to be global and local
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  Speaker 1: at the same time. And it's something that we're investing in.
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  Speaker 1: For example, here in the US, we have a very
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  Speaker 1: sizable team here in New York and Austin in l
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  Speaker 1: A at this point in UH, becoming more local is
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  Speaker 1: something we will continue to invest in. Okay, let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about the beginning of of TikTok. So what is byte
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  Speaker 1: dance byke Dance was the parent company, When was byte
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  Speaker 1: Dance started and who was they founder a byte Dance.
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  Speaker 1: I was very fortunate about ten years ago to have
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  Speaker 1: to have had the chance to participate in the company
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  Speaker 1: as an investor. Back Dance was founded in t Bye Eiming,
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  Speaker 1: and the original Like any good start up story, the
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: original the original product has evolved over time and there
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: were many hits and mrs you know, as in the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: evolution of the company. One thing that has remained very
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: consistent for Bye Dance is the mission. The mission for
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  Speaker 1: by Dance today is to inspire creativity and to enrich life.
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  Speaker 1: And what I've noticed over the course of the decade
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: that I've known the company is that they have been
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  Speaker 1: very consistent in wanting to deliver this mission to as
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: many people as possible and driven by this mission. What
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  Speaker 1: struck me in the early days of by Dance was
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  Speaker 1: the desire to be mobile, the focus on machine learning recommendation,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and this desire to be global, and it's been very
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: system over the last ten years. I should disclose that
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: my own investment company is an investor in Bye Dance.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: We took an investment a number of years ago and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: then I assume it will be a good investment. I
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: don't know. But let's talk about how TikTok evolved out
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: of byte Dance. So when did TikTok come along. The
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: original apps that were developed by byte Dance had a
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: very similar concept, which was to recommend content to use
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: this based on machine learning. Machine learning algorithms that tries
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to understand the user's behavior. The first iteration of it
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: that was successful was a news app, so it took
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: news content and it recommended news to use this based
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: on their own behavior on the app. Now, sometime between
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: sixteen that evolved into short video and that evolved into TikTok.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: And did anybody think it would turn out to be
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: as global phenomenon at the beginning? No? No, all right,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: So let me ask you about TikTok and regulation. Under
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: President Trump, there was a concern that certain information that
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: TikTok was getting from people using TikTok was somehow going
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: to be detrimental to the United States, and there was
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: an effort to force TikTok to sell its US business.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: What happened to that effort. We believe that our approach
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: to all the governments that regulators around the world is
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to be collaborative and to be very transparent, to be
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: available to explain what we do and who we are,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and answer any questions that we have. That's the approach
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: we have taken in that approach has been an approach
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  Speaker 1: that has been very beneficial for us over the course
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: of the last few years. But there was a proposal
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: at one point that require you to sell the TikTok
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: business in the US. I think it was going to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: be sold perhaps to Larry Elson's company Oracle. Is that
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: off the table now and right now you're not being
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: forced to sell anything. Is that right? We have moved
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: beyond that conversation. It is okay. And the current administration
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and bid the administration have they picked up the cudgels
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and said, well, we want to engage in the same fighter.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Right now, you don't have to worry about that again.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: We are taking the approach now to be very transparent,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: to be very engaged, very collaborative, and to answer any
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: questions that they may have. Okay, But the biggest concern
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that people had, at least some people in the Trump
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: administration had it, maybe other people, is that the data
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that you have on your computers about who's watching what.
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  Speaker 1: I presume the data you have would somehow get fed
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: back to China and China would have it for its
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: use the Chinese government. Is that true that your data
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: is subject of being given to or you're forced to
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: give it the Chinese government. We disagree with that the
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: ways TikTok is set up today. First of all, TikTok
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: is not available for download in China. It operates outside
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of China. The datas the data for TikTok uses is
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: thought in Virginia and in Singapore, with the backup in Singapore,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: uh and we believe that we have a very rigorous
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and robust system to protect the data security of our uses.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: What do you do with the data? So let's suppose
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I on TikTok and I like certain kinds of things
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: to watch. You presumably can in your algorithms know that
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: what do you do with that? That you sell it
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to another company or do you do nothing with it?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: It is our recommendation engine. The best way to think
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: about it is that it's just pure mathematics. It's it.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: It digests the behavior that ill uses have on our platform,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: including likes. You know what videos do you like? The comments?
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: How long you stay on the particular video, so on
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and so forth. So signals like behavioral signals like that,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: and it recommends him, It recommends the content that you
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: could potentially be most entertained by. So so that's really
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: how the that's really how the data is being used
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: on our platform. And how many countries are you in
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: now outside of China and India essentially all the other
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: every country? Okay? And today you have something that's proprietary
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: such that somebody couldn't come along and compete. In other words,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: there's always people coming along trying to disrupt companies, and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that certainly happens a lot in the tech where all
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: are you worried that somebody is going to come along
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: with a new product that's slightly better than yours or
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: do you think it's unlikely given how dominant you are
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: in the business now, David, This this is a very
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: competitive space and in our industry there are players with
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: like but bigger muscles. They have more resources, they have
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: been around for a longer period of time, and I
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: think it keeps us on our toes. No, we have
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: you know, we have our strengths. We are pineers in this.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: You know, we believe that We are innovative and we
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: will continue to innovate. And we have a very unique
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: community that we talked about that that we believe is
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: very special and not easily replicable. So we have our advantages.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: We are confident, but at the same time, competition is
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: very intense. Now China has been a little tougher, some
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: people would say, on Chinese tech companies than it was
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a year or two ago, and there's been what some
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: people would say clamp down on Chinese tech companies. Has
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that affected you in any way? I think in in
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: in this day and age, we have to be very
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: collaborative and be very transparent and have an active dialogue
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: with regulators and governments around the world to help them
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: understand our business and to answer any questions that you
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: may have. As I mentioned earlier, my my firm did
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: invest in it, but I don't have any inside information,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and I don't know if you're going to give me
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the inside information. But is there any plan to take
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Bite Dance public at some point? Our current focus, given
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the growth of our company, is to really focus on
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the business. There's just so much we can do, especially
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: for TikTok that really our management focuses on growing the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: business at this point and making sure that we are
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: investing in the right things that we invest in. At
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: some point we will access the capital markets. At some
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: point we will, but that is really not the priority
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: at this point. And when you go go into the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: public markets, what do you think when your public documents
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: are revealed will be the biggest surprise. It's the size
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: of the platform or the profitability of it. What do
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: you think is likely to be the biggest surprise. That's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: a very good question. I need to go back and
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: think about it. I think most of what we do
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: is is followed and many people sort of you know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: thankfully you have a lot of interest in in our
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: business today, so I'm not sure whether there will be
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: any big surprises. Let's talk about your own background. So
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: you mentioned your Singapore and were you born in Singapore.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I am born in Singapore, okay, And did you go
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to college and high school in Singapore. The thing about
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: growing up in a small island like Singapore, David, is
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: you get won the lust at a very young age.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: It's a tropical paradise. It's a tiny island. I love it,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: but it's very small. So after high school and after
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the National Service. We have National service there. I, you know,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: went to the UK for college and then subsequently to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: hear in the US V Business School where I and
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: my wife. All right, you went to Harvard Business School?
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I did? And so how do you think Harvard Business
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: School was? Was it smarter? The people they're smarter than
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: your thought or not as smart as you thought they'd
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: It was a great I had a great time there.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: The most important moment was I met my wife in
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: business school, So to me, this is a you know,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: it was a great two years. Okay. So you graduate
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: from Harvard Business School in what year? All right? So
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: what did you do then? After business school? I joined
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: an investment company called DST which invests in internet companies.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Is this your A Milners company? Yes? And so what
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: did you do for him? You look for Internet related investments.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: That's what I did, okay? And how many years were
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: you there? I was there for about five years, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: it was doing this time that I got to meet
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and meet and invest in Byte Dance. Okay, So after
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you left your A Milners operation, what did you do?
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I joined a company called shell Me, where I initially
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: was the CFO and then ran the global operations for
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the company. Okay, so you did that for a while
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and then a head hunter called you up and said,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: guess what we want you to come to Bite Dance
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: or how did that happen? It wasn't a head hunter.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: The I've stayed very close to the folks and Bitte
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Dance because of my early relationship with them, so they
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: reached out. There's a little known fact about me, which
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: is I used to be a creator. I actually had
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: a hundred and eighty five thousand follow us on that account,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and so I've had to go through that process of
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: learning how to connect with my followers and using the product,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and it was an amazing way. I found the product
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: so amazing in terms of being being able to communicate
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the messages I wanted to my followers. So I love
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: the product. I've known the team for a long time.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: I think that the mission is something that I really
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: truly believe in. So when the opportunity opened up, it
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: was very organic for me to trave ad followers. Now
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I did you did? Now you've given them up? Or
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: what do you have now? That account was used to
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: sell products. So I have since transitioned into a sort
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of a more consumer based a more sort of personal account.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: All right, So you were recruited to become the CFO
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of byte Dance, right, and you have that job, You're
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the CFO a Byte Dance, and after just like five
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: weeks they promoted you to be the CEO of TikTok
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Is that right? It was after it was after a
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: couple of months. A couple of months, okay, So was
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that a promotion? I think it's that the nature of
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the job is very different. And what is the biggest
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: challenge that you have as a CEO? Is it to
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: keep the regulators away or to get more customers, more advertisers.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: What is the biggest challenge? There are a couple of
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: things that you know keeps me awakend night, And I
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: think that's the question. Um. The opportunity that we have.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I believe that we have something that's very unique. We
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: pioneered this sort of short video format, and would we
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: have a very unique community today that has all these
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: kind of raw, authentic content that people love. And I
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: think the opportunity that we have to take this to
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: more people around the world to inspire them and for
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: them to bring more joy to more people. This is
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: a great and unique opportunity. Excuse me, very very excited.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: At the same time, there are challenges that we have
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: to work through, for example, making sure that we are
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: investing enough more and more into safety to stay ahead
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: of our growth, because it is something that's very important
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: to us. So challenges and opportunities they, you know, both
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: excite me equally. Since so you took the job of
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: CEO of TikTok, we've been living in COVID. How hard
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: has it been to manage a company during COVID? Are
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: you've mostly been isolated or how have you been operating
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: during COVID? It has been a challenging time. I think
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: for many businesses around the world, including ours. We are
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: a growing company, it is difficult for new employees who
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: are joining us do not have the opportunity to mingle
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and interact with other people offline in the offices. So
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: it is something that you know, Uh, thankfully we are
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: at the stage of the pandemic where we can start
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: thinking about return to office. It is something that you know,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: we want to vite, especially the newcomers in our company,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the right opportunities to to integrate and to blend in
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: and to make sure that they have, they have the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: right opportunities to interact with with as many people as
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: they want. So if you look at TikTok, what is
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: your favorite single thing you've watched on TikTok? Is there
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: one thing you've watched and you said this is my favorite? Uh,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: there are a number of them. I am an amateur golfer,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: So hashtag golf has ten billion views more on TikTok.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: It's it's very, very entertaining. So if you watch golf
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: on TikTok, do you get to be a better golfer
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: or not necessarily unfortunately, not necessarily help. Okay, when you
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: are not working at TikTok and you're not golfing, there's
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: there any outside interest you have or you don't have
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: any outside time? I do, I do. I'm a very
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm an amateur theoretical physicist, as in I'm reading
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: books on theoretical physics and and trying to understand it.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: So that's something that I love. I've interviewed many people
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: over the years. I've never interviewed anybody who said that
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: they're hobby was amateur theoretical physics, so that must be unusual.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Um So do you regret not becoming the next Albert
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Einstein or something like that. I don't think I have
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the ability to be that. I hardly understand the mathematics
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: behind some of the more complex theories, but I find
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: it very interesting. So today, as you look forward to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: what you're going to be doing over the next year
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: or so, what are you most focused on. I'm most
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: focused on trust building. We are a young company, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I think trust is something that we have to earn
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: through actions, for example, through our continued investment in safety.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: So that is a big focus for me that we
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: are focused on not only growing out business, but earning
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: trust with the right stickholders around the world along the way.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen.