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‘Over Time the Trust Will Come’: An Exclusive Interview With TikTok’s CEO

A few weeks ago, Shou Zi Chew sat down with WIRED to tell us how he’s trying to make TikTok better. Is the company’s CEO for real—or just a really good politician?

This isn’t where I imagined I’d be talking to the head of the most influential social media app on the planet, but the only way I could get on Chew’s calendar was by meeting him at TikTok’s first-ever music festival —a sold-out, two-stage program at the Cubs’ training facility in Mesa, Arizona. Three things can simultaneously be true: First, that China’s government openly watches its citizens and an app with origins there will naturally raise a red flag in many countries, especially in the US after parent company ByteDance was caught tracking journalists there in late 2022. He gives off none of the abrasive “tech bro” energy of his peers, instead exuding the folksy persona of someone perpetually running for town mayor: a handsome, charming man who seems genuinely curious about everyone he meets—savvy enough to know who evening headliner Cardi B is, but not quite savvy enough to know that he was supposed to remove the white baste stitches from his blazer before wearing it to the event.

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