Struggling Continuously
By Hua Shang Taolue, Jin Yu
At the beginning of 2024, Zhou Shouzi sat down for an interview with the American magazine "Wired". Dexter Thomas, the magazine's reporter, recalled that just as they were about to start the conversation, Zhou Shouzi took out his phone and invited the other party to follow him on TikTok:
"Follow me, my handle is @shou.time, I'll follow you back."
Zhou Shouzi also told Thomas that he always does this; whenever he goes to a new city, he meets new creators and stays in touch with them on TikTok.
In this interview, Thomas wrote that although Zhou Shouzi became the CEO of TikTok in 2021, what really made him known worldwide was the hearing in March last year. At that time, he sat alone on one side of a table several meters long, facing dozens of Republican lawmakers, and for five hours, he calmly and gracefully responded to their inquiries with composure and poise.
A TikTok insider later recalled, "Because Chew represented TikTok, they had to suppress him and even prevent him from speaking."
Less than a year later, a similar scene unfolded, with even fiercer hostility and attacks directed at TikTok.
[CEO with an Asian Face]
On January 31, Zhou Shouzi once again appeared before the US Congress for a public inquiry, this time in a hearing titled "Big Tech and the Crisis of Online Child Exploitation," held by the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
Zhou Shouzi opened his remarks as a father of three children, saying, "As the father of three young children, I know that the issues we are discussing today are very frightening, every parent's nightmare... We intend to invest over $2 billion in trust and safety. This year alone, we have 40,000 safety professionals working on this."
Like a rerun of the previous hearing, Zhou Shouzi's remarks were frequently interrupted.
The Singaporean newspaper "Lianhe Zaobao" described the hearing as having a "hostile tone." In this roughly five-hour hearing, over 50 lawmakers united to barrage their attacks on the CEO with an Asian face.
One memorable scene was when prominent anti-China lawmaker Tom Cotton fired off eight sharp questions in a row, questioning Zhou Shouzi's nationality, whether he had applied for Chinese citizenship, whether he had applied for US citizenship, even questioning the identities of Zhou's wife and children, and whether TikTok shared US user data with the Chinese government.
In the video, Zhou Shouzi appeared somewhat helpless after enduring a rapid-fire interrogation, repeatedly clarifying that he is a Singaporean. Despite being rudely and unreasonably interrupted, he earnestly emphasized that TikTok prioritizes the safety of young users and denied any "national security risks."
After the video spread online, even American media felt embarrassed. The Verge, an American technology news outlet, wrote that Zhou Shouzi's relationship with China had been extensively discussed in last year's hearing, and Cotton obviously "did not do his homework." On social media, people associated Cotton with labels like "xenophobia" and "racism."
Democratic Asian-American Congressman Ted Lieu issued a statement the next day questioning Cotton, asking why it was necessary to inquire about Zhou Shouzi and his family's nationality and citizenship, "Don't you think it's necessary to ask similar questions to other executives?" He also stated, "Senator Cotton and many of his Republican colleagues apparently view Asians as suspicious outsiders, and they're all the same. This was fully demonstrated yesterday."
Singapore's Ambassador to the United States, Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, also issued a rebuke, calling the series of inquiries Zhou Shouzi faced in the US Senate regarding "relations with China" "excessive" and such behavior could "damage America's image."
[From Soldier to VC Guru]
Zhou Shouzi was born in Singapore in 1983 and grew up there, completing his compulsory military service for the Singaporean government in his teens.
Reflecting on his upbringing, he once said, "At 18, it's hard to focus." But military life made him think a lot, and the most important lesson, which had the greatest impact on him, was:
"Don't waste time."
With this initial determination, he began to strive to do his best in everything he did, and before completing his military service, he had already attained the rank of lieutenant.
After leaving the military, Zhou Shouzi went to the UK for further studies, attending the London School of Economics.
In 2006, after obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Economics, he found a job as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in London. Two years later, at the age of 25, Zhou Shouzi resigned and went to Harvard Business School in the United States to pursue an MBA. It was here that he met his current wife, Vivian, from Taiwan, China, through email; she was also studying at Harvard University.
In 2010, Zhou Shouzi graduated from Harvard Business School. During this time, he interned at Facebook, which was still a startup at the time, and thus got exposed to the tech industry. Even now, Zhou Shouzi often recalls a statement made by Facebook's COO:
"If you're told to board a rocket, don't ask which seat to take, just get on."
This statement prompted Zhou Shouzi to join Digital Sky Technologies (DST Global), a venture capital firm led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, after graduating from business school. At the time, this future super investment group had just been established, and no one knew how it would develop. But when Milner reached out to Zhou Shouzi, he didn't hesitate for a moment.
In subsequent interviews, he explained that the phrase "just get on" kept ringing in his ears.
With his professional background and fluent Mandarin, Zhou Shouzi quickly became the head of DST Global's China division.
When he first arrived in Beijing, Zhou Shouzi had almost no connections or resources. To quickly make progress, he frequently asked friends to introduce him and attended as many events as possible. "I could arrange up to 10 meetings a day, visit 30 companies a week, and three to five hundred companies in a year."
As he made more friends, his understanding of the business and his capabilities improved rapidly. Zhou Shouzi believes that investment is a technical activity that requires a lot of accumulation in the early stage to achieve a qualitative leap, and maintaining critical thinking is also necessary in this process. At the end of each workday, take some time to reflect: Did what you did today have meaning? Should you have done it or not? If it shouldn't have been done, then stop doing it, and if it should have been done, do more of it. My habit is to jot it down and push myself to think.
Every time after visiting a company, Zhou Shouzi would repeat this process. In his view, not reflecting equals wasting time.
Forbes once described Zhou Shouzi as a "fast-talking Harvard MBA graduate" who, within just a year, had befriended over 20 top partners at financial consulting firms.
More importantly, he could turn connections and reflections into achievements.
John Lindfors, co-founder of DST, believes it was Zhou Shouzi's efforts that laid the foundation for DST's entry into the Chinese market.
It was also during this process that Zhou Shouzi met Lei Jun.
According to insiders, in order to meet Lei Jun, Zhou Shouzi first connected with start-ups personally invested by Lei Jun through his established network, and then used this connection to reach Lei Jun. In March 2011, he successfully arranged a meeting between DST's bosses, Milner and Lindfors, and Lei Jun, in a crowded office at Xiaomi, where the four of them chatted over tea.
Eventually, DST secured 7% of Xiaomi's shares for $500 million, creating a classic investment case with multiple returns.
In addition to Xiaomi, from 2010 to 2015, DST completed several highly profitable investments in China, including investments in JD.com and Alibaba, as well as investments in Kuaishou and Didi, where Zhou Shouzi played a crucial role.
Within the industry, he was seen as the most important communication bridge between DST and Chinese investment projects. So much so that a well-known VC vice president once described Zhou Shouzi as "the epitome of my definition of a male god."
["The Second-in-Command of Xiaomi"]
Four years after the tea table meeting in 2011, Xiaomi, known as the "champion of poaching," did something big again. This time, Xiaomi poached from its own investor, and the person they poached was Zhou Shouzi, who facilitated DST's investment in Xiaomi.
Through this choice, Zhou Shouzi completed his transition from an investor to a corporate CFO.
Many still remember the excitement of Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun at the time; he enthusiastically announced on his personal Weibo: "Xiaomi's new CFO, formerly at DST and Goldman Sachs, is one of the most outstanding investors I've ever met. A Singaporean, absolutely handsome and wealthy, welcome Mi fans to follow him!"
From then on, Xiaomi employees and Mi fans got used to calling Zhou Shouzi the "Second-in-Command of Xiaomi."
During his tenure as Xiaomi's CFO, Zhou Shouzi's most significant achievement was successfully orchestrating Xiaomi's listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018.
Xiaomi's listing was the largest IPO in the Hong Kong stock market at the time and the first company with dual-class shares, making Zhou Shouzi's resume even more impressive. However, many within Xiaomi knew the countless efforts Zhou Shouzi put into the listing.
This young man, who could rely on his looks, was truly the most hardworking of all.
During the Xiaomi listing in 2018, Zhou Shouzi shared a Weibo post saying: "Sleeping is a waste of time in the year ahead." Lei Jun once described Zhou Shouzi in an interview as "having a diligence that seems like revenge on the world."
According to media reports, Zhou Shouzi would list every investor he met in an Excel sheet, which eventually had 1,500 rows.
A year after Xiaomi's listing, Zhou Shouzi also became the president of Xiaomi International.
Since then, Xiaomi has continuously expanded its overseas business. Even during the most severe period of the domestic epidemic from January to March 2020, Zhou Shouzi never stopped. He traveled to Hong Kong, Switzerland, Southeast Asia, and Europe one after another, expanding and negotiating business.
That year, amidst the global challenges posed by the pandemic, Xiaomi Group's overseas business, especially in Europe, achieved historic breakthroughs. Its smartphone shipments ranked among the top three in the European market for three consecutive quarters and topped the market for the first time in Spain...
The 2020 financial report showed that Xiaomi's international business expanded to more than 100 countries and regions, with overseas revenue totaling 122.4 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 34.1%, accounting for half of the total revenue.
At Xiaomi, Zhou Shouzi continued his legendary investments: leading Xiaomi to invest in over 270 companies, including Huami Technology, Yunmi Technology, and Stone Technology, which all went public. At the same time, Xiaomi also established the billion-dollar Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industrial Fund.
From CFO to board member, and then to becoming a partner, many even believe that Zhou Shouzi could be Lei Jun's successor.
However, in 2021, Zhou Shouzi suddenly announced that he would leave Xiaomi and join ByteDance as CFO, based in his hometown, Singapore.
According to people close to Zhou Shouzi, the busy work in Beijing left him with little time to reunite with his family. All he could do was prominently display a photo of his family in his office and set his phone wallpaper to pictures of them.
But these were far from enough to ease the pain of being away from his family.
It is said that Zhou Shouzi has a habit: every time he tastes delicious food, his first reaction is to take a photo and send it to his family, adding "I'll take you to eat this next time."
But no one knows when that next time will be.
Although Xiaomi is precious, after 18 years away from Singapore, returning home became one of his greatest desires.
Lei Jun was reluctant but understanding of the departure of this invaluable aide who had worked tirelessly for him.
Unlike the common splitting of ways, the departure of Lei Jun and Zhou Shouzi left many lamenting.
Lei Jun referred to Zhou Shouzi as "a brother who has fought together for 6 years," and he posted a photo of the two on his personal social media, writing: Despite various feelings of reluctance, I still wish my classmate Zhou Shouzi an infinitely wonderful life.
Key Figure at TikTok
In 2021, Zhou Shouzi made a dramatic entrance into ByteDance, becoming the company's first CFO in history, sparking immense excitement and discussion.
At that time, people speculated that Zhou Shouzi's arrival signaled ByteDance's impending IPO.
However, in just six months, Zhou Shouzi stepped down from the position of ByteDance CFO. He took on a more challenging role as the CEO of TikTok, ByteDance's overseas short video platform.
Since 2020, TikTok has become one of the most watched projects in the global internet community. Amidst the pandemic, it saw explosive growth. According to Sensor Tower store intelligence data, in April 2020, Douyin and TikTok topped the global App Store and Google Play system in terms of revenue. And its download numbers surged month after month, surpassing 2 billion downloads in total.
This disrupted the established order of the global internet.
Soon, the US government announced considerations to ban TikTok, and ByteDance began a lengthy negotiation process.
In the midst of this crisis, Kevin Mayer, who had been CEO of TikTok for just 100 days, announced his resignation, with Zhang Yiming's understanding. He once wrote in an internal memo, "In a company like ours that develops rapidly, taking on a leadership role has never been easy."
During Kevin Mayer's tenure as CEO, TikTok faced consecutive executive orders from the Indian and US governments, with intentions to divest TikTok from ByteDance. Meanwhile, global tech giants awaited the opportunity to seize TikTok.
Who could replace Mayer and take on this heavy burden?
On April 30, 2021, ByteDance announced the answer: Zhou Shouzi would also serve as the CEO of TikTok.
At that time, Zhou Shouzi had been with ByteDance for just one month. Some media outlets wrote, "Zhou Shouzi, at the time when ByteDance needed him the most, stepped up," and praised him as the perfect candidate.
In fact, Zhou Shouzi and Zhang Yiming had a long-standing connection. As early as 2013, when Zhang Yiming, who was facing numerous setbacks, brought Toutiao (the predecessor of ByteDance) to DST, it was Zhou Shouzi who was responsible for and decided to invest in Toutiao.
According to an analysis by a tech media person, Zhou Shouzi was optimistic about Toutiao for three reasons at that time:
The founder is very capable, clear about the overall direction, and the data is very good.
Perhaps it was this kind of experience that led ByteDance to write in his internal appointment letter: "Zhou Shouzi is very familiar with our business, team, and culture. He knew us during his time at DST and pushed DST to invest in ByteDance at an early stage."
Hugo Barra, a former Google executive who worked with Zhou Shouzi at Xiaomi, also believes that Zhou Shouzi is the right choice for CEO of TikTok. He said, "Zhou Shouzi grew up in the Chinese-American language and cultural environment. Objectively speaking, he is more suitable to serve as a dual-role executive (both domestic and overseas) for a Chinese company that wants to become a global giant than anyone I have met in the Chinese business community."
Over the past two years, Zhou Shouzi, who was called upon in times of crisis, has also delivered outstanding results.
He navigated TikTok through a complex and volatile policy and market environment, leading it to steady growth.
Data released by market research firm Apptopia shows that TikTok topped the global app download chart in 2022 with 672 million downloads. The "2023 Global Mobile App (Non-Game) Market Outlook" report released by SensorTower also pointed out that TikTok's global revenue in 2022 was $3.5 billion, an increase of nearly 60% compared to $2.3 billion in 2021.
In 2023, Zhou Shouzi posted 18 videos on his TikTok page "@shou.time," the most videos he had posted in a single year in the past few years. Almost every video featured his cheerful smile on the cover, documenting TikTok music nights at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona, transforming into Batman and an astronaut using cyberpunk effects templates, and recommending the super cool exhibition commemorating the centenary of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew...
Beyond these lighthearted short video moments lies the real battlefield for Zhou Shouzi.
He remained busy, going to Brussels to explain TikTok's data security mechanisms to the EU, dispelling their concerns about misinformation; holding talks with the Thai Prime Minister and the President of the Philippines; and as head of business operations and global strategic direction, he led TikTok's return to the Indonesian e-commerce market, securing an important foothold in Southeast Asia.
Data shows that TikTok's user base in the United States has risen from 100 million in 2020 to 170 million in 2024, consistently ranking as the top choice for teenagers and remaining one of the most popular short video platforms in the United States.
But today, outstanding performance has become one of the reasons why the US government considers TikTok a security threat.
Since February 2023, the White House has instructed federal agencies to remove TikTok from government devices within 30 days, and multiple cities have prohibited government employees from downloading TikTok.
In March, during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on TikTok, US lawmakers raised concerns to Zhou Shouzi that the app "poses cybersecurity and data privacy risks."
In May, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill banning TikTok from operating in the state.
In August, a spokesperson for the New York City Hall said that cybersecurity agencies had determined TikTok to be "a security threat to the city's technical network," and the city banned the use of TikTok on government-owned devices.
In December, a federal judge in Texas issued an order upholding a law banning the use of TikTok on state-owned devices and networks.
Just yesterday, on March 13, 2024, the US House of Representatives passed the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries' Control of Applications Act" with a vote of 352 to 65, forcing TikTok's Chinese owner to sell this popular video application, or else it will be banned in the United States. On March 14th, at 6:45 AM, in a video posted on the official TikTok account, Zhou Shouzi responded to the legislation with rare displays of anger. He expressed disappointment at the U.S. House of Representatives passing the ByteDance separation bill regarding TikTok. Towards the end of the video, he urged American users to take action and voice their support to senators in order to protect the TikTok platform.
He further emphasized that TikTok would continue to resist, including exercising its legal rights to prevent the ban.
As of 5:00 PM on March 14th, the video had garnered 3.3 million likes.
Ironically, just over two months ago, in an interview with U.S. media, Zhou Shouzi expressed the company's willingness to earnestly improve transparency and trustworthiness. He mentioned taking action to store all data with a third party. "Trust will develop over time," he said.
His sincerity and efforts evidently went unnoticed by American politicians, or if noticed, they chose to ignore them. As Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin put it, "Seeing something good and trying to take it for oneself is entirely the logic of thieves."
"The U.S. handling of the TikTok issue will make the world see more clearly whether America's so-called rules and order serve the world's interests or only its own."
[References]
[1] Cotton defends pressing TikTok CEO on ties to Chinese Communist Party, The Hill
[2] "Xiaomi International President Zhou Shouzi resigns. What has happened over these 6 years?" Sina
[3] Zhou Shouzi's TikTok Account
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