From Intern to Rival: How TikTok’s CEO became Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest competitor

Shou Zi Chew, now the CEO of TikTok, once interned at Facebook under Mark Zuckerberg. A decade later, he has become one of Meta’s biggest competitors.

Chew, originally from Singapore, earned a degree in economics from University College London before pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School. During his time at Harvard, he interned at Facebook, a then-rising tech company.

After starting his career in California, Chew moved across the globe, working in London, Singapore, and Hong Kong before settling in Beijing. In 2015, he joined the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, where he played a key role in taking the company public.

In 2021, his path crossed with Zuckerberg’s once again—this time as a competitor. Chew joined ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, as CFO before becoming TikTok’s CEO later that year.

Today, TikTok stands as one of the world’s most influential social media platforms, boasting over 1 billion users globally, including 150 million in the U.S. Unlike many other major platforms, it remains outside Zuckerberg’s control.

Interestingly, in 2016, Zuckerberg tried to acquire Musical.ly, a lip-syncing app that later became part of TikTok. However, ByteDance secured the deal for $800 million in 2017, merging Musical.ly with TikTok and turning it into a global sensation.