TikTok ramps up Australian unit as Chinese owner ordered to sell US business

Besieged video-sharing app TikTok is bolstering its operations in Australia amid political pressure on its Chinese owner to sell its US business.

TikTok’s Australian boss Lee Hunter and Ollie Wards, who is joining the company after 10 years with Triple J. Picture: Britta Campion

Besieged video-sharing app TikTok is bolstering its operations in Australia amid political pressure on its Chinese owner to sell its US business over concerns about the safety of the personal data it collects and stores.

Lee Hunter, who joined TikTok as its first local general manager in May, says he is focused on growing its base of users, creators and advertisers, as well as “being the most open and transparent platform”.

He said music was “incredibly important” to TikTok, and it had hired Triple J’s long-serving content boss Ollie Wards to build its brand and its slate of local artists.

“It’s really at the heart of what makes a lot of the content succeed. So it’s really important to me that we had someone leading the music front who has a background with not just any great player in the industry, but also supporting great Aussie artists,” Mr Hunter told Media.

“Ollie will be talking with the record labels, the artists and their managers and the broader industry about how TikTok can help make Australian music really succeed.”

Mr Wards is TikTok’s first director of music for Australia and New Zealand, and second major executive hire following the appointment of Felicity McVay as director of content under Mr Hunter. More hires are expected in the coming weeks as Mr Hunter builds his team.

Locally, TikTok is looking to fill 24 roles across operations, marketing and sales. It also has more than 690 vacant positions in the US, Britain, Europe, India and Asia, according to its website.

Mr Hunter said TikTok had seen strong growth in local users, content creators and advertisers during COVID-19.

“The growth we’ve seen at TikTok has been pretty phenomenal, particularly through the lockdown period,” he said.

Mr Hunter was tight-lipped on the group’s future in the US after President Donald Trump recently ordered its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell its US operations. But he said it was “business as usual” in Australia.

“Australia is a priority market, and with that comes a lot of the help and resourcing and focus from the global HQ, which is based out of the US,” he said.

Mr Trump has labelled TikTok a national and economic security threat, and recently signed an executive order that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to an American company by next month.

Microsoft, Twitter and Oracle have reportedly emerged as potential suitors. Microsoft has said it is negotiating to buy TikTok’s operations in the US as well as Australia, Canada and NZ.

India banned TikTok in late June along with more than 50 other Chinese apps over claims they were collecting personal information. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ruled out banning TikTok in Australia.

Mr Wards, who spent 10 years at ABC’s Triple J, is looking forward to starting on August 31.

“I’m excited to be joining the platform because in an incredibly short amount of time it’s become one of the biggest players in music discovery,” he said.