Fresh off its IPO, Triller Group has hired a former head of product at TikTok to lead its Triller app, a TikTok competitor.
In a statement on Wednesday (November 20), Triller Group announced the appointment of Sean Kim as CEO of Triller App and the company’s Triller Platform Co. subsidiary.
Kim worked at TikTok US from 2019 to 2022 as Head of Product, where he was responsible for strategic direction and various products, including the app’s For You Page, creator monetization, TikTok For Developers, third-party integrations, and more.
Most recently, Kim served as President and Chief Product Officer at Kajabi, a California-headquartered SaaS tech company.
Kim’s experience also includes stints at DirecTV, Amazon, and Amazon Prime.
Triller said Kim’s arrival marks “a pivotal moment in the company’s ongoing transformation… Sean is poised to steer Triller App toward becoming the ultimate destination for creators, fans, and brands.”
The appointment reflects the company’s “heightened focus on scaling its platform, expanding its global footprint, and delivering cutting-edge experiences for creators, fans, and brands,” the company said, vowing to make Triller “the best app for creators, fans, and brands in the industry.”
The company also announced that the next-generation version of the Triller app is expected to be ready in Q1 2025, and plans to unveil “a series of new initiatives and product enhancements” in the coming months.
“We’re bringing the best talent in the industry to Triller, and I’m thrilled to lead this transformation,” Kim said.
“Our mission is to become the most creator-focused social platform in the world with discovery, monetization, and ownership.”
The company said that, in addition to Kim, it’s bringing in other talent from TikTok and Amazon, which is expected to deepen its leadership bench. However, the company didn’t provide any specifics.
“Our mission is to become the most creator-focused social platform in the world with discovery, monetization, and ownership.”
Sean Kim, Triller
The news comes roughly a month after Triller Group debuted on the NASDAQ exchange. Triller had had its eye on becoming a publicly traded company for several years. After several false starts, it announced this past spring that it would debut on the market through a merger with AGBA, a Hong Kong-focused financial services company.
At the time, the two companies billed the merger as creating a $4 billion company. However, the new Triller Group was valued at around $700 million after its first day of trading. The company’s market cap has since fallen to around $580 million.
The week following the IPO, Triller Group named Kevin McGurn – a veteran of Hulu and Vevo – its new CEO, responsible for both of the company’s two principal businesses, Triller Corp. and AGBA Group Holding Limited.
The pre-IPO Triller suffered from evident financial problems, fending off a series of lawsuits over non-payment of licensing fees for music on its platform.
That included a 2022 suit by Sony Music, which alleged the company had used “millions of dollars” of music without authorization. That suit was settled in 2023.
Triller also faced a lawsuit from Universal Music Group over allegedly unpaid music licensing fees.
In an SEC filing earlier this year, in advance of its planned IPO, Triller revealed that it owed music rightsholders $23.6 million in unpaid fees. The company, which had raised more than $420 million from investors, had less than $1 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand.
As part of the merger with AGBA, Triller set aside 50 million shares of the new company to be “applied toward future settlement of certain Triller legal and financial obligations.”
At its share price as of the close of trading on November 20, those shares were valued at $187 million.Music Business Worldwide