TikTok's American makeover takes a hit after CEO Kevin Mayer steps down

You can’t get much more American than Disney. So it was quite a coup when a Chinese upstart managed to snag one of the family entertainment giant’s senior executives.

Kevin Mayer was head of Walt Disney Co.'s streaming business before Beijing-based ByteDance Inc. tapped him to become chief executive officer of TikTok, the company's short-video service for international markets. Less than four months later, he’s now gone from ByteDance, whose $140 billion valuation makes it the world's biggest unicorn. Beyond losing a CEO, Mayer’s departure bruises TikTok's makeover into an American company that’s not beholden to the Chinese government. President