Head of Streaming for The Walt Disney Co. Kevin Mayer has recently resigned from his position to join TikTok as Chief Executive Officer. Along with this role, Mayer will also serve as the Chief Operating Officer of ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Mayer’s new appointment will be effective June 1, the Chinese company said.
At Disney, Mayer was responsible for the successful launch of the Disney+ streaming service in November. However, he was passed over for the Chief Executive’s position, and Robert Chapek was named as the new CEO. Since then, Mayer’s association with Disney had been on rocky terms.
Mayer was always perceived as “loud and forceful” by several Disney executives. Mayer was seen as a dealmaker who was recently put in charge of several large profit-and-loss divisions. Many believe that he was not selected for leading Disney as he lacked operating experience.
However, a ByteDance spokesperson said that the company has “no reservations” about Mayer’s experience. “Any company in our sector would be delighted to have him on board.”
Commenting on working with Mayer, Disney’s current CEO Chapek said, “Kevin has had an extraordinary impact on our company over the years. Having worked alongside Kevin for many years on the senior management team, I am enormously grateful to him for his support and friendship.”
Mayer is best known as Disney’s longtime deals maven. Before he was promoted to run the direct-to-consumer and international division, he served as Disney’s chief strategy officer, helping to orchestrate the purchases of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, most of 21st Century Fox and BamTech.
Speaking about his appointment at TikTok, Kevin said, “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join the amazing team at ByteDance. Like everyone else, I’ve been impressed watching the company build something incredibly rare in TikTok – a creative, positive online global community – and I’m excited to help lead the next phase of ByteDance’s journey as the company continues to expand its breadth of products across every region of the world. On a personal note, I’m thankful to the entire Disney team for the tremendous accomplishments we achieved together. I’m especially grateful to Bob Iger for his visionary leadership and mentorship over many years, and to Bob Chapek whom I greatly admire. As I begin a new chapter, I’m humbled by the trust Yiming and the Board has placed in me as we move forward with a shared vision of how to scale ByteDance’s growth.”
TikTok, which allows users to create short videos with special effects, has become wildly popular in the U.S. amid the coronavirus lockdowns. The app has so far been downloaded about 11million times during the lockdown.
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