What’s new: Smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp.’s international business president Chew Shou Zi tweeted Wednesday he is leaving Xiaomi and will join ByteDance Ltd., returning to his home country of Singapore to take up a post as chief financial officer.
Chew, who oversaw Xiaomi’s initial public offering as its chief financial officer in 2018, thanked his boss Lei Jun, founder and chief executive of Xiaomi, for the years of guidance. His appointment fuels speculation over ByteDance’s plans to go public.
Earlier Wednesday, Xiaomi announced Chew’s resignation along with several senior management changes from after the company reported its fourth-quarter financial results.
The background: Before joining Xiaomi in 2015 as CFO, Chew was a partner at DST Global, a venture capital firm and early investor in Xiaomi, as well as Chinese tech giants including JD.com Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and Didi Chuxing.
Chew is heading to ByteDance at a time when the operator of the world’s largest short-video app is facing increasing competition from domestic rivals and is eagerly searching for new growth drivers as its Douyin app nears its peak in user growth.
Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok, the global hit, has attracted more than 600 million daily active users.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com)
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