The Met Gala, which serves as a branding event for Vogue, has long accepted sponsorships from tech giants that have threatened the very existence of traditional media publications.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos appeared as honorary chairman of the ball in 2012. Four years later, when Apple was sponsoring the Met Gala, its CEO Tim Cook showed up in a tuxedo and tails. And Instagram delivered cash in 2022.
The 2024 event is sponsored in part by TikTok, the social media giant whose future is more uncertain than Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker and other magazines, which has laid off employees and closed or sold some magazines. are doing. Its publications in recent years.
TikTok found itself in jeopardy last month when President Biden signed a bill giving ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, nine months to sell its app or face a ban in the United States. I realized that. In response to the political firestorm, TikTok's chief executive, Shou Chu, 41, will join dozens of celebrity guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan on Monday night.
He was chosen by Anna Wintour to be honorary president of the charity, which raises tens of millions of dollars each year for the museum's Costume Institute. Ms. Wintour, Global Editorial Director at Condé Nast and Editor-in-Chief of Vogue magazine, has run the event for a quarter of a century, using the synergy of celebrity and fashion to highlight the world's most influential people. We have created a flashy showcase. In recent years, this group has seen an increase in social media influencers and fewer famous stars (Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna).
TikTok may be hated by lawmakers in Washington who have expressed concern about the Chinese government's access to its 170 million users in the United States, but TikTok remains a major part of American life. It has an undeniable cultural influence, especially among Generation Z. This app is also a fashion influencer. And the Met Gala provides plenty of fodder for many TikTok creators. As such, the lesser-known Mr. Chu has at least as much clout as this year's party's far more famous co-chairs: Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth, and Mr. Wintour herself. There is.
Along with TikTok, it is sponsored by luxury fashion brand Loewe. Creative director Jonathan Anderson will serve as honorary chairman alongside Chu.
TikTok declined to reveal its funding for the star-studded event. It is known that in the past few years, sponsors have put in about $5 million.
Mr. Bezos and Mr. Cook were well known for greeting the likes of Rihanna and Beyoncé at previous Met Galas. Meanwhile, Mr. Chu is likely to go unnoticed by most of the peddlers lining the barricades along Fifth Avenue, many of whom may be making TikTok videos on their cell phones.
attractive attack
Starting in 2022, when U.S. lawmakers were becoming more enthusiastic about TikTok, the company changed its public relations strategy. Instead of keeping a low profile, the team has embarked on a glamorous attack with a fresh-faced Shou (pronounced “show”) Chu front and center.
Chu met with top Washington think tanks and world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as TikTok spends millions of dollars on lobbying efforts. At the New York Times Deal Book Conference in November 2022, he wore jeans, a casual blue blazer over a white T-shirt, and white sneakers that looked like they were fresh out of the box, while wearing national security Answered questions regarding concerns.
His anticipated appearance at the Met Gala, once a stalwart event for New York bluebloods but under Mr. Wintour's watch has become the Oscars of the East Coast, is a way for TikTok to present itself to the public. This can be seen as part of a change in But this time, instead of sitting with people who influence policy issues, the TikTok boss will be on the red carpet in front of a photo corps.
Chew, who declined to be interviewed for this article through a TikTok representative, grew up in Singapore. It's where he makes his primary residence, along with his wife Vivian Cao, 42, a former Goldman Sachs employee, and their three children. The couple spent more than $60 million on a home in the island nation's Queen Astrid Park area in 2021, according to Singapore's Business Times.
Family is a very private thing. A video posted by Ms Chew on TikTok from a recent Taylor Swift concert at the Singapore National Stadium showed a rare glimpse of Ms Kao and one of her children.
Mr Chu said his father worked in the construction industry and his mother was a bookkeeper. He attended one of Singapore's leading secondary schools before serving as an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces, where he completed his two-year national service obligation. From there he enrolled at University College London.
After graduating with a degree in economics in 2006, I took a job at Goldman Sachs' London office. There he met Nathalie du Preez, who is still his friend.
“We were sitting on the same floor and he was walking past,” Du Preez recalled in a phone interview.
During their first conversation, they found out they were both applying to Harvard Business School. They took coffee breaks together at Leonidas Chocolates, which was around the corner from the office.
When Du Preez and Chu arrived at Harvard in the fall of 2008, they carpooled with a group of people headed to IKEA. They were just two of his many students who were looking for affordable home decor.
“He's come a long way since then,” she said.
Mr. du Preez and several other classmates from Harvard Business School interviewed for this article recalled Mr. Chu as a funny person, but could not comment on the specific funny things he said. I couldn't remember. They also agreed that he had a razor-sharpness, but gave no specific example of his sharpness.
They said he was a Manchester United fan, recalled attending the David Guetta show at the Roxy in Boston, and was curious about pop culture and sports. They said he liked video games such as the soccer game “FIFA'' and was the neatest of his roommates.
Mr. Chu met his future wife, Ms. Cao, while attending Harvard Business School. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, and is Taiwanese-American.
Mr. Chu and Mr. Cao were attending business school as the financial crisis hit. “We called it the 'just-in-time' admissions class because the market crashed that fall,” classmate Karen Kelleher said in an interview.
Some of Mr. Chu's business students were surprised when he took a summer internship at Facebook rather than pursue a career in finance, even though the big banks were failing. This social media company was only founded by him five years ago, and it took many years for him to go public.
Gene Abirama, who lived across the street from Chu in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said his classmates later realized he had made a prescient choice. ,” she said.
With his master's degree in hand, he joined DST Global, a venture capital firm led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who is on track to become one of the most important private investors in Silicon Valley companies. Mr. Chu served as Mr. Milner's point man in China, leading investments in Alibaba and Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing.
During that time, Mr. Milner reportedly provided $10 million in funding to a news aggregation app founded by Zhang Yiming, an entrepreneur who had a close relationship with Mr. Chu. This app will be ByteDance. Mr. Chu also helped DST Global invest in Xiaomi, one of China's largest mobile phone manufacturers.
In 2013, Chu and Cao got married. Two years later, Chu left DST to become Xiaomi's chief financial officer and helped lead the company to an initial public offering in 2018.
he got the job
Chu was named ByteDance's chief financial officer in March 2021 and took the top job at TikTok two months later. In November of the same year, he resigned as ByteDance's chief financial officer.
TikTok's former CEO Kevin Mayer resigned after less than four months in office, citing increased pressure on the company from the Trump administration over its ties to China.
Opposition from U.S. lawmakers continued during President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s term. While trying to keep lawmakers at bay, Chu found time to attend the 2022 Met Gala with Cao. He was dressed thoroughly formal, wearing the traditional white tie and tails. She wore a glittering floral gown.
Kao currently runs a family office called Tamarind Global. The company's website says it “manages investments and philanthropy” for “Singapore families.” In addition to Mr. Chu, the company's shareholders include trusts associated with Mr. Chu and Mr. Cao, according to public records.
Debate continues over whether Mr. Chu, who accompanies minor security personnel, is a controlling force on TikTok. Company officials told the Times that key strategic decisions were made by Yiming, among others.
Mr. Chu playfully created a TikTok handle (@shou.time) that mimics the pronunciation of his own name. However, the account did not have many supporters until it was pursued by Congress in March 2023.
Under intense questioning, Mr Chew was forced to repeat that he was a Singaporean citizen, not a Chinese citizen. He went on to stress that TikTok is not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and noted that his wife is American, telling a questioner: “By the way, she was just born a few miles from here.” he said.
It was this appearance that brought him to the attention of the public. Before the hearing, he had less than 20,000 followers on TikTok. He currently has 3.9 million.
The user posted a clip highlighting an offensive question from a lawmaker. Many TikTokers even called Chu “zadi” (slang for an older, attractive man).
On November 8, 2023, TikTok announced that it will be the “lead sponsor” of this year's Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit (officially known as the Met Gala). A few days after the announcement, Vogue Singapore published a rare sit-down interview with Chew.
He was photographed wearing Louis Vuitton jeans and a velvet Brunello Cucinelli blazer, and made good-natured comments about his mandatory service with the Singapore Army in the “Jungles of Brunei” and his third diaper duty. Told. “There's a significant age difference between this child and the previous child,” he said in an interview. “My wife and I are relearning everything, including changing diapers.”
Mr. Chu, along with other tech executives, was summoned to Congress again in January. He emphasized that he does not live in China and said that he is not a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
While Chu declined interview requests from news outlets delving into TikTok's ties to China, he gave an interview to another Condé Nast publication Wired during a TikTok music festival in Mesa, Arizona in December 2023. I responded.
While the Wired article continues to primarily focus on TikTok's pop culture footprint, it also argues that “thinly veiled anti-China xenophobia has become a reliable part of U.S. political strategy.” appeared to be defending TikTok from US critics. An advance plug for Mr. Chu's Met Gala appearance was also included.
“This is a very cultural thing,” Chu told Wired. “Fashion is a very important part of TikTok. Louis Vuitton has 12 million followers on our app.” (The fashion house currently has more than 13 million followers on TikTok. Masu.)
Ms. Du Preez, a colleague at Goldman Sachs and a classmate at Harvard University, said she was not surprised that Mr. Chu had expressed interest in partnering with Vogue and Mr. Winter, especially given the company he leads. He said that at a time when he was trying to demonstrate his Not under Chinese control.
“The Met Gala is an incredibly big night,” she said. “I think it makes sense to do that in terms of making friends in America. Everyone who goes there will have a TikTok account.”
But he didn't expect her to pick out a memorable ensemble for him.
“I have no doubt that Vivian will dress him in beautiful things,” Ms. du Preez said. “And at this point, he can get a lot of advice from everyone about what to wear. I'm sure Anna Wintour will give him a tip.”
For the record, Mr. Chu will be wearing Ralph Lauren items. Ralph Lauren is an American designer with a penchant for red, white, and blue, which made him the obvious choice to dress the U.S. Olympic team in patriotic attire.
ryan mack Contributed to the report. Kirsten Noyes Contributed to research.
