Facebook’s Shant Oknayan joins TikTok parent company ByteDance

DUBAI: TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has appointed Shant Oknayan as general manager of global business solutions across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT).
In his new role, he will work closely with ByteDance’s clients and partners while leading the business, sales and marketing strategies across all of its products in the region.
Oknayan has nearly 20 years’ experience leading business development and digital transformation strategies for both government and private entities.
In his previous role as group director at Facebook MENA, he drove commercial partnerships across a broad number of categories including fast-moving consumer goods, retail and e-commerce.
He previously held a number of positions at Google in the region, including small and medium business market development, and head of strategy and operations.
Oknayan also brings an entrepreneurial mindset to ByteDance. In 2012, he co-founded GlamBox, the first subscription-based beauty e-commerce platform in the region, which was acquired in 2017 after multiple rounds of successful fundraising.
Commenting on his new role, he said: “I am truly excited to join ByteDance, which is one of the fastest-growing global technology companies, spearheading innovation in the mobile space. In the MENAT region, ByteDance — with its short-video platform TikTok — has truly disrupted the way people create and interact with content, inspiring creativity and bringing joy to the community. I look forward to bringing that engagement and excitement to the forefront of our clients’ business and marketing strategies, working closely with my colleagues and partners to create new synergies in the industry.”