TikTok to open regional HQ in Riyadh during Q1 2025: CEO

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok

TikTok intends to open its regional headquarters in Riyadh city during the first quarter of 2025, CEO Shou Zi Chew told Asharq News.

On the sidelines of the 8th edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference held in Riyadh, he added that there is a very significant opportunity for his company to transfer the history and culture as well as arts from youths in Saudi Arabia and share them with the rest of the world.

In 2023, Aref Yehia, Head of Business Partnerships for Retail & E-Commerce at TikTok in MENA, told Argaam that Saudi Arabia is an important market for TikTok in the Arab region and of great significance for the short-form video hosting service platform. Yehia explained that the platform operates in the Kingdom by creating partnerships in several sectors to help companies achieve their marketing objectives.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih said yesterday that the number of international companies that launched regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia exceeded the target of having 500 companies by 2030, with 540 so far setting up their regional offices in the Kingdom.

According to Argaam’s data, in January, Saudi Arabia decided that government entities will no longer contract with any foreign company or commercial party with regional HQs outside the Kingdom. This includes bodies, institutions, and funds affiliated with the Saudi government or any of its agencies.