Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok said on Tuesday that United States’ user numbers had zoomed to 150 million, which is almost half the total population, as he prepared to oppose at US Congress for the Chinese-owned site’s future.
Chew will give testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday where he is set to encounter a storm of questions over allegations by both Republicans and Democrats that the Chinese-owned video app is accountable to the Communist Party in China.
The company has also confirmed reports that the White House gave TikTok an ultimatum to part ways with its Chinese owners or face a US ban.
Today, I’m super excited to announce that more than 150 million Americans are on TikTok. That’s almost half of the US coming to TikTok to connect, to create, to share, to learn or just to have some fun.”
Chew said in a TikTok post.
This was up from TikTok’s last estimate in 2020 that 100 million users came to the video-sharing site every month, which already made it one of the most popular.
Chew also questioned the app’s loyal users to let me know in the comments what you want your elected representatives to know about what you love about TikTok.
Some politicians have started talking about banning TikTok. Now this could take TikTok away from all 100 and 50 million of you.”
Chew said.
TikTok CEO said he would share with Congress “all that we’re doing to protect Americans using the app,” in a reference to a suggestion called Project Texas that would guarantee special handling for the data of US users.
TikTok has consistently declined to transfer data with Chinese officials and says it has been working with US authorities for more than two years to address national security concerns.
According to market tracker Insider Intelligence, time spent by US users on TikTok has topped that spent on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and it is closing in on streaming titan Netflix
