NEW DELHI: TikTok developer Bytedance has elevated Abhishek Karwar to head of global creative and emerging markets - user growth. Karwar had joined the organisation in December 2019 as head of user growth.

During his two decades in the media and entertainment industry, Karwar has experience managing and scaling up digital businesses and heading product development, marketing and product marketing functions on a global level. He is well-versed in building platforms, negotiating partnership deals and executing go to market strategies.

The NIIT graduate considers his specialities to be in the field of short format videos, OTT technologies, digital media, broadcast media, business strategy.

Prior to his role at TikTok, Karwar had a brief stint as head of sales and marketing at Intuition Intelligence. He has also been associated with Mirriad, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Times Group and ITC Infotech.

Karwar’s elevation comes at a time when Bytedance is downsizing its workforce in India after a months-long ban on its moneymaker, TikTok. Undeterred by this short-lived foray in one of its biggest markets, the Chinese app developer is expanding its operations worldwide, and has particularly ramped up recruitment in Singapore. The Beijing-headquartered company has also come under global scrutiny over TikTok’s data collection practices.