TikTok’s Efforts to Distance Itself From Chinese Parent Stumble Over Talent
Short-video app is trying to reduce ties with ByteDance but is still hiring staff in China for key functions
TikTok has accelerated efforts to move workers away from China in an attempt to distance itself from its Chinese parent, but the short-video app still counts on local talent to handle some key functions and continues to recruit there. TikTok and its parent ByteDance Ltd. have moved key executives to Singapore and the U.S., ramped up hiring of staff and engineers outside of China, and reorganized teams internally from the rest of the Chinese company’s suite of apps, part of efforts to separate the companies under scrutiny from Washington.
Still, some engineers working on TikTok’s algorithms remain based in China, people familiar with the matter said.
Beijing-based ByteDance continues to recruit people in the country to work on TikTok.
The parent is advertising jobs in China to work on various TikTok features, such as private messaging, live-streaming and its marketplace functions. It is also hiring for roles based there focusing on international expansion, including searching for senior algorithm engineers to develop its user search interface.
Hiring within China allows ByteDance to leverage the experience social-media engineers have accumulated working with other domestic apps, in addition to letting the company tap the deep talent pool domestically, people familiar with the company said.
Most of TikTok’s hiring is happening in the U.S., U.K., Singapore and other markets in Southeast Asia, a company spokesperson said.
TikTok employs more than 20,000 people, with about a quarter of that number in the U.S.
TikTok’s Chinese ties have stirred concerns in Washington and across the U.S. over national-security risks of user data as well as potential censorship or content manipulation on the platform.
The U.S. Senate passed a bill last Wednesday citing national-security concerns and banning TikTok from government devices, while a potential deal between the Biden administration and TikTok over its U.S. operations has run into delays.
Several states, including Texas, have made moves to ban the use of TikTok on governmentissued devices, citing concerns that the app could be used to help China surveil Americans and U.S. intelligence officials.
TikTok has repeatedly denied any connection with the Chinese government. It also has said that it safeguards its user data and wouldn’t share it with Beijing.
Founded in May 2017, TikTok is by far the most successful Chinese internet company worldwide. It was the most downloaded nongaming app through the first half of 2022, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.
TikTok has around one billion daily users globally, according to company employees.
Since coming under fire from the Trump administration for its Chinese connections, TikTok executives three years ago embarked on a strategy of establishing regional headquarters outside of China, including in Culver City, California, and localized policies and operations in individual overseas markets.
Most recently, the app has broadcast plans to try to safeguard U.S. users’ private data by storing the data with Oracle Corp. and deleting such data from its own centers.
TikTok has accelerated efforts to relocate some China-based engineers and product managers to other locations, such as Singapore and the U.S., partly to facilitate their access to overseas users’ data for product-development purposes, people familiar with the matter said.
TikTok has said it is working to restrict access to user data by China-based staff, an effort to address security concerns raised by the U.S. and other governments.
ByteDance chief executive Liang Rubo has relocated from Beijing to Singapore, joining TikTok head Shou Zi Chew and product chief Zhu Wenjia, who are based in the city-state.
Several senior managers who oversee product development and algorithms and report to Mr. Zhu are based in Singapore and the U.S.
In Singapore, hundreds of its employees handling its regional expansion work from a commercial building in the central business district where the Chinese internet company leased space more than two years ago.
This year, TikTok has beefed up its attempts to hire more engineers and product managers in locations outside China, according to people familiar with the hiring.
The pace of hiring has been slower than expected because Singapore has a smaller talent pool than China and because of complications in acquiring work visas.
ByteDance considers TikTok one of its main growth engines and has allocated more resources to expand and monetize the services, especially as its China businesses have slowed.
It is also developing e-commerce on the app, duplicating some functions and models from TikTok’s Chinese sister app Douyin.
Under this strategy, TikTok is using Chinabased staff who have experience working in ByteDance’s other monetization projects and e-commerce service, while some of them are tasked to attract Chinese merchants to sell on TikTok, people familiar with the matter said.
Historically, most of TikTok’s software developers and programmers had been based in China, as they had worked at Douyin, which uses similar algorithms to recommend content to users, and other algorithm-driven apps of ByteDance, people familiar with the matter said.
This setup means many changes to the algorithm TikTok uses were handled in China, they said.
In late 2021, ByteDance began reorganizing its units to cluster employees by product area, rather than by their duties, according to an internal memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Before the change, many TikTok employees were scattered in different ByteDance teams, the people said. Under the new arrangement, TikTok staff would operate in their own unit.
Since May, ByteDance has changed the names of several subsidiaries, including its main China entity, in which a state-backed fund owns 1%.
It replaced the “ByteDance” label on those units with “Douyin,” an effort to reduce public confusion between ByteDance, the offshore parent, and its China entities and address concerns that TikTok could be under Beijing’s control.
ByteDance in October also rebranded the Douyin entities with a new logo. The app Douyin still uses the same logo as TikTok’s.
ByteDance has sought to expand its existing board of directors to nine from five to bolster its non-Chinese representation, people familiar with the matter said.
Adecade after the animated film made an impact, kids in Southeast Asia now have the chance to experience Disney’s Frozen as Broadway’s latest musical is coming to Singapore. It will be staged at the Lion City’s Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands from Feb 5 next year until March 5. Tickets are now available via SISTIC.
Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions (The Lion King, Aladdin, Mary Poppins), the musical was adapted from the Disney film and original 1844 fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen The Snow Queen. But now, Frozen is being brought to theatrical life in this new musical. Frozen’s journey sweeps audiences into its thrilling world of adventure and classic comedy, and of course the mega-hit song Let It Go which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. While the story in Frozen features true love, it has become loved around the world for breaking the princess mould of girls needing to be saved by a prince, and focuses on the bond of two sisters Elsa and Anna.
The musical Frozen first opened in New York City’s St. James Theatre in March 2018 with the highest box office advance in Broadway history. Since then, the global footprint has expanded to include a North American tour, London’s West End, Japan, Germany and Australia. The Singaporean stage production will feature a full score, including 12 new songs from the original Academy Award-winning songwriters written especially for the stage.
Life recently joined in a media launch of Frozen at Marina Bay Sands where Australian musical theatre director Benjamin Osborne, as well as actors Jemma Rix and Matt Lee who played the roles of Elsa and Olaf, teased the press and fans with what to expect, and how they will bring a new flavour of a beloved tale to Asian audiences.
Ben, you’re bringing a very big-scale musical cue to Singapore. How are you preparing for the opening in February?
Osborne: Our crew is packing and dismantling everything. And we didn’t have a little break in the shows, because I’ll come back here in mid-January to start rehearsing local children. We’ve got six local children in the show. And they’re going to be playing the roles of young Anna and young Elsa. I auditioned them a few weeks ago, and they were wonderful, and I can’t wait to start working with them. And then we open in February. So it’s a mammoth task.
How big is the production for the shows in Singapore?
Osborne: We’re talking about shipping over 26 containers. When you guys see this production, it is everything that you will want to see. It’s bigger than Broadway or London. It is massive, so you get everything and it’s the only stop in Southeast Asia. So make sure you guys can make it.
Jemma, you’re accustomed to staging musicals with visual spectacles such as Wicked, The Wizard Of Oz and Disney’s Frozen. How did you get the role of Elsa? And can any of your past experiences help you in this process?
Rix: Well, definitely. I think every job that you do, you harness a little bit more skill. And so I think that I was ready to play Elsa when I was auditioning for her. It was a six-month process. It was very, very long. There were multiple auditions, so it was very high-pressure and it was nerve-wracking.
How about you, Matt? How did you actually land the role of Olaf?
Lee: It was interesting because I went in when I originally auditioned for Prince Hans. I went into the room and I was reading a little bit of the scripts, and the director says to me, how do you feel about Olaf? I was like, sure. Then, we went down the Olaf path and started to audition and here I am. I got the role of Olaf!
Could you share with us more about your thoughts when you first learned that you’re going to play Olaf, since it’s not exactly a human role?
Lee: No, it’s not a human role. When I got offered the role, the first day I was super excited and nervous. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with playing these characters the world has fallen in love with. But the great thing is I got to learn a new skill because of the role. It’s a skill because not only do I have to tell the story through a puppet, but you also see my face as the actor behind the puppet. So it was quite a challenge, but something that I’ve had fun with.
Olaf is such an adorable character that we all love. Please tell us what you love most about your character since you have the added complexity of commanding puppets during the performance. How difficult was it to do the puppet movements?
Lee: The greatest thing about Olaf is that he says it how he sees it. He doesn’t really have a filter, and the cup is always half full. He is full of joy, and it was a pleasure to play him because seeing everything through rose-coloured glasses is fun. I think we could all be a little bit more like Olaf. The complexity of having to tell that story through a puppet is challenging, but it’s been something that’s rewarding because when I run on stage, the audible gasp from the audience is quite overwhelming. To hear the kids enjoy it, it’s been amazing to get the chance to play Olaf.
Jemma, Elsa is also an iconic role that is loved by many and has been played by many actresses. So how do you make this character your own?
Rix: In the rehearsal period, we had a good director who was wanting to find my unique Elsa, so there wasn’t any desire for me to fit into a certain mould. I think that every Elsa is different and unique vocally to who they
are as a person and how it comes out. You’ve got a deep basis of the direction of who Elsa is, and how she’s feeling in
certain scenes, but how that flourishes and comes out is something unique because we are all unique. So that was really embraced, which I really liked. You can really be very truthful when you’re not trying to replicate, and audiences connect with truth. Otherwise, there’s a veil and a disconnect if you’re
trying to be something.
Ben, Disney’s Frozen is such a huge production with high expectations. And of course, Disney is known for its extravagant productions. What will we get to see in terms of the sets and costumes? And will there be Disney magic?
WHEN YOU GUYS SEE THIS PRODUCTION, IT IS EVERYTHING THAT YOU WILL WANT TO SEE
Osborne: There are 440 costumes on stage. Elsa’s ice dress took three months to make, and the detail in this show is incredible. There are 120 pairs of handmade shoes. Ninety wigs are made out of human hair, and there are 45 tonnes of flying scenery in this show. We really are transported to Arendelle which is fantastic. There are also a lot of Easter eggs hidden throughout the city, so when you come, have a look.