TikTok CEO appeals to U.S. customers forward of Space testimony

Shou Zi Chunk, leader govt officer of TikTok Inc., speaks throughout the Bloomberg New Economic system Discussion board in Singapore, on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022.

Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chunk appealed immediately to the app’s customers forward of what is anticipated to be a heated grilling within the U.S. Space Power and Trade Committee this week, in a video posted to the platform Tuesday.

Filming from Washington, D.C., Chunk emphasised the huge scale of TikTok customers, small and medium-sized companies and its personal workers founded within the U.S. that depend at the corporate. The message might preview his attraction to lawmakers Thursday, the place he’ll be confronted with questions concerning the talent of its Chinese language guardian corporate ByteDance, and the Chinese language executive, to get admission to U.S. consumer data amassed through the app.

TikTok says it has labored to create a possibility mitigation plan to make certain that U.S. knowledge does not get into the arms of a overseas adversary thru its app. The corporate has mentioned U.S. consumer knowledge is already saved out of doors of China.

However many lawmakers and intelligence officers appear to stay unconvinced that the ideas will also be secure whilst TikTok is owned through a Chinese language corporate. TikTok mentioned ultimate week that the Committee on International Funding within the U.S., which is reviewing dangers associated with the app, is pushing for ByteDance to promote its stake or face a ban.

Chunk disclosed within the video that TikTok has greater than 150 million per 30 days lively customers, or MAUs, within the U.S., representing large expansion from August 2020, when it mentioned for the primary time that it has about 100 million MAUs within the nation. That quantity comprises 5 million companies that use the app to achieve their shoppers, with maximum of the ones being small or medium-sized companies. He additionally mentioned TikTok has 7,000 U.S.-based workers.

“This comes at a pivotal second for us,” Chunk mentioned, referencing lawmakers’ threats of a TikTok ban. “This is able to take TikTok clear of all 150 million of you.”

Chunk then appealed to customers immediately to proportion within the feedback what they would like their representatives to find out about why they love TikTok.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH: TikTok and ByteDance spied in this Forbes reporter