Disney Streaming Chief Kevin Mayer Leaving To Become TikTok CEO

Disney's Head of Streaming, Kevin Mayer, is leaving to become the chief executive of TikTok and ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok. CNBC reports: It's a huge score for TikTok, a social media platform that hosts short form videos. Mayer was considered one of the top candidates to replace former Disney CEO Bob Iger, before Bob Chapek was ultimately named chief executive. Mayer is also leaving Disney after the successful launch of its streaming platform, Disney+, which rolled out in November and had 54.5 million subscribers as of May 4. Mayer earned a reputation at Disney as being the company's top deal maker. He spearheaded the company's acquisition of BAMTech, which makes the streaming technology that powers the company's online video services. He was also instrumental in Disney's acquisitions of Lucasfilm (and the Star Wars franchise), Pixar, Marvel and 21st Century Fox over the last decade and a half.

Disney veteran Rebecca Campbell will take over as Disney's head of streaming, the company announced in a news release. Campbell is a 23-year veteran of the Disney company and has held leadership roles across Disney's media, international and parks businesses. Most recently she served as president of Disneyland Resort.

I want to be like him when I grow up

[lessSockMorePuppet]

I want to be good at buying all the things too!

Re:

[waspleg]

A traitor to your nation? TikTok is state sponsored malware from the CCP, just like Zoom, and anything from Tencent [wikipedia.org] check out their list of partial/full ownership; The CCP has a very long reach while the West is asleep at the wheel. Unfortunately this is becoming more and more common.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to be good at buying all the things too

I've always wondered what skills these people actually have that sustains them in these positions. It seems to be in part a famous-for-being-famous corollary that includes ambition, articulateness, and luck. When I worked in aerospace there were a few big shots who had an impressive ability to maintain a high level of cognizance of what was happening across the various organizations under them. Leadership is another thing. Some would chase fads, some were one tr

Re:

[hacker_news_rocks]

Iger skipped over this guy to promote the theme parks boss to CEO. He undoubtedly felt betrayed.

Have you seen TikTok? It's teenagerhood distilled to a perfect medium. It's better engaging than Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or anything else ever hoped to be.

This guy and the Chinese owners of TikTok are going to rewire the nation's youth to buy whatever products or ideology they want. He's making a smart move. Unfortunately it sucks for our nation's future.

Re: Imagine that being your life's work.

[BAReFO0t]

All I have seen of TikTok, is that it is somehow about short videos where you move to music.

And that it is designed to be highly addictive.

How that is the essence of teenagerhood for you, is beyond me.
And I loved dancing to music as a teen, as did my friends. Feeling how I felt then, I see zero urge to whore it online for some reason.

Care to explain?
Because that can't be it, can it? (OK, the Yo! app says it most definitely can.)

Re: Imagine that being your life's work.

[hacker_news_rocks]

You clearly haven't engaged with the app. It's got people making pop culture references, being political, showing things they like, dislike. Showing off things they own, things they want. Telling their hopes and dreams, showing off achievements. Making skits, making movies, lip syncing. Complaining. Sharing music. Showing off the things they made. Hanging out. Dating, talking about the love life, complaining about the love life. Giving fashion tips, economics advice, homework help, etc. Science videos, mat

Re: Imagine that being your life's work.

[hacker_news_rocks]

I can't edit, but I wanted to add - this app hits the sweet spot between dopamine rush and social validation. It's got people hooked.

Slashdot "We value your privacy" dialog unkillable

[mestar]

On Chrome on Windows 10, I could dismiss it in Edge.

This was the solution, open javascript console:

for( var x in document.querySelectorAll("a")) { if( x.text == "I ACCEPT") c.click()}

Re:

[waspleg]

privacy badger
https everywhere
ublock origins

I've never seen whatever you're talking about.

Disney seems pretty chummy with China.

[sabbede]

Too chummy. Too willing to censor what we, or anyone else, sees in order to make mass-murdering dictators happy. I'm not at all surprised a Disney exec has gone to work for the CCP. Just very, very disappointed.