Top TikTok execs on Tuesday sought to assure advertisers the company has “done the hard work” to become a safe, reconstituted entity worthy of their continued investment.
Adam Presser, CEO of TikTok’s USDS Joint Venture (“USDS” stands for “U.S. Data Security”), and Khartoon Weiss, VP & GM, Global Business Solutions, kicked off the company’s NewFronts presentation with brief comments about the state of the platform.
The JV was officially created in January after years of delays and legal wrangling over TikTok’s ownership by China-based ByteDance, which triggered security concerns. While it still retains 19.9% of the new entity (the largest share of any investor), ByteDance is joined by a consortium of other stakeholders including Oracle and Michael Dell.
“Over the past year, we faced the noise and we’ve done the hard work,” Weiss said. And what’s standing here today, I am genuinely proud to say, is the strongest, most secure, most creative platform we have ever built.”
Over the past several years, and across two presidential administrations, concerns have waxed and waned at companies, government agencies and other areas of society about the notion of user data being ultimately overseen by China, which is not a U.S. ally. The new JV structure leaves the existing algorithm in place under Chinese control, which is a positive in terms of impressions and usage, but something critics have pointed to as a flaw in the long-gestating settlement of litigation. The Supreme Court and Congress both found that the app could not continue to operate as it was previously structured, but President Trump issued several stays as the details of the investor consortium were finalized.
Urged by Weiss to introduce himself to the crowd, Presser noted he has worked at TikTok for four years in various executive roles. He said the “mission to inspire creativity and bring joy remains the same” as it was before the JV’s formation.
Nevertheless, he added, “I have the very distinct honor of getting to lead this organization with a very clear mandate: protect U.S. user data, apps, and algorithms in a secure onshore U.S. cloud environment, support the next phase of business growth, and drive the next wave of innovation.”
The efforts of the company over the “epic” first 60 days since the JV was formed “has made some important parts of our business independent that ensure the integrity of the experience for our U.S. users,” Presser said. “And at the same time, continue to enable the same global platform and experience that our users and advertisers and partners have come to know and love. So what that means is that all of you can continue to invest in this platform, knowing that it’s been built on incredibly important protections and safeguards designed for users and advertisers, and that we, TikTok and all of you together, keep us poised for sustainable growth for years to come.”
After Weiss and Presser left the stage, host Lily Singh took the audience at the Ziegfeld Ballroom through a number of new ad products. The new offerings include Logo Takeover, which lets advertisers co-brand with TikTok at the top of the logo launch page; Prime Time, a sequential storytelling format enabling three ads to be served within 15 minutes from the same advertiser; and TopReach, which helps optimize aatd impact at key times.