Sergey Diakov
The man running the world's hottest social media app didn't start with money or connections. Shou Zi Chew, the guy steering TikTok through political storms and billion-user growth, came from pretty ordinary beginnings in Singapore. His dad worked construction, his mom kept books, and nobody handed him anything on a silver platter. Today, he's sitting on a $200 million fortune and running a platform that basically owns the attention span of an entire generation. So how'd he pull it off? Let's break down his journey from military service to managing one of the most controversial and successful apps on the planet.
How the CEO of TikTok Earned His First Dollar
After finishing his mandatory stint as an officer in Singapore's Armed Forces and grabbing an economics degree from University College London in 2006, Chew landed at Goldman Sachs in London. Not a bad first gig, right? Working as an investment banker, he dove straight into the world of mergers and acquisitions, learning how billion-dollar deals actually get done.
Those early years at Goldman weren't just about the paycheck—though investment banking money definitely beats most entry-level jobs. What really mattered was the education he got watching how corporate finance works at the highest level. He spent two years there soaking up knowledge about financial analysis and corporate strategy, building relationships with some of the world's biggest investors. This foundation would prove absolutely crucial for everything that came next.
From Banking to Tech Billions: The Career Climb
After his Goldman Sachs run, Chew made a smart pivot. He jumped to DST Global, a venture capital firm that was investing in the companies everyone would be talking about years later. At DST, he wasn't just analyzing deals anymore—he was leading investments in massive tech players like JD.com, Alibaba, and Xiaomi. But here's the kicker: he also led a team of early investors in ByteDance back in 2013. Yeah, that ByteDance. TikTok's parent company. Talk about planting seeds.
The real turning point came in 2015 when Chew joined Xiaomi as their Chief Financial Officer. This wasn't some startup in a garage—Xiaomi was already a major player in smartphones, and Chew helped take them global. He orchestrated one of the biggest tech IPOs when Xiaomi went public on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2018. By 2019, the guy was running Xiaomi's entire international business, pushing the company into markets outside China and raking in serious compensation along the way.
During these years, Chew was probably pulling in millions annually as CFO of a major tech company, though the exact numbers stayed private. But more importantly, he was building a reputation as someone who could handle complex global operations and turn growth strategies into real results.
When the CEO of TikTok Hit His Peak
March 2021 was when everything changed. Chew joined ByteDance as their Chief Financial Officer, but just two months later, he got tapped to become TikTok's CEO. The previous CEO had bailed amid all the political drama around TikTok's future in the U.S., and ByteDance needed someone who could handle the heat.
And boy, was there heat. As TikTok's boss, Chew now pulls down about $20 million a year in salary alone—not counting stock options and other perks that push his total compensation way higher. But earning that money means dealing with constant pressure from governments, especially in America, where lawmakers keep threatening to ban the app over security concerns.
His big moment came in March 2023 when he testified before the U.S. Congress. While other tech CEOs might've sweated bullets, Chew stayed cool, calmly explaining that TikTok wasn't some Chinese spy tool. That hearing got millions of views—ironically, mostly on TikTok itself. People couldn't believe how composed he stayed while getting grilled by politicians.
Under his leadership, TikTok stopped being just a fun app for dance videos and became a serious money-making machine. The platform now has over a billion users worldwide, and Chew's been steering it through regulatory nightmares while still pushing growth. He's had to balance innovation with responsibility, expansion with compliance, and keeping users happy while governments freak out.
What the CEO of TikTok Is Worth Today
Right now, Chew's sitting on an estimated $200 million fortune. That's not Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg money, but it's still pretty insane for someone who started with nothing special except brains and drive. His wealth comes from multiple sources—that hefty CEO salary, equity stakes in the companies he's led, and smart investments he made during his venture capital days.
The cool thing is his net worth keeps growing as TikTok gets bigger. With over a billion users and counting, the platform's value keeps climbing, and since Chew owns pieces of the company through stock compensation, his personal wealth rises with it. Every time TikTok hits a new milestone or figures out another way to print money through ads and e-commerce, Chew's bank account benefits.
Sure, $200 million seems modest compared to other tech billionaires, but think about it—this guy came from a working-class family in Singapore and built a nine-figure fortune in just a couple decades. That's the kind of success story that proves you don't need a trust fund or family connections to make it big in tech.
Core Success Principles from TikTok's Leader
What makes Chew different from a lot of tech executives is how he thinks about leadership. He's not some ego-driven founder type—he's more strategic, more calculated, more focused on the long game. His success philosophy boils down to a few key ideas that anyone trying to build something can learn from.
First off, he's all about being "global and local at the same time." What does that mean? Basically, don't just copy-paste the same strategy everywhere. You need to understand what works in different markets and adapt while keeping your core vision intact. TikTok looks different in India than it does in America than it does in France, and that's by design.
Second, Chew is obsessed with data. He doesn't make major decisions based on hunches or trends he read about on Twitter. Every big move gets backed by solid analytics and evidence. He wants to know what users are actually doing, not what people think they're doing. This data-driven approach keeps TikTok ahead of competitors who are just guessing.
Third, he builds teams where people actually want to contribute. Chew creates environments where everyone feels valued and ideas can come from anywhere. He's not the type to shut down suggestions because they didn't come from the executive suite. That collaborative approach leads to better innovation and keeps talented people around.
But here's what really sets him apart—Chew genuinely cares about ethical leadership. He understands that making money isn't enough if you're trashing society in the process. That's why TikTok invests billions in user safety, content moderation, and data privacy, even when it would be way cheaper to cut corners. He knows that long-term success requires building trust, not just building features.
When crises hit—and they hit constantly at TikTok—Chew stays calm. While other CEOs panic or get defensive, he focuses on solutions. He's transparent with regulators even when it's uncomfortable, because he knows that dodging problems just makes them worse later.
The bottom line? Chew's success came from mixing education with smart career moves, taking calculated risks at the right moments, staying ice-cold under pressure, and never losing sight of doing things the right way. He proved you can build massive wealth without a privileged starting point—you just need strategy, discipline, and the willingness to step up when opportunity knocks.
Sergey Diakov
