A week after TikTok ousted its marketing chief Nick Tran, the short-video app’s head of product Sean Kim has quietly made an exit, On The Money has learned. Both TikTok execs left earlier this month — just days apart from each other — but Kim gave notice in December. Kim confirmed the departure, saying he has another opportunity lined up but declined to comment further. TikTok also confirmed the departure but declined further comment. One insider fretted the company is now missing two top executives — and that there hasn’t been a push to find a replacement for either. TikTok chief operating officer Vanessa Pappas will fill in for Tran in the interim. The company has yet to announce who will fill in for Kim. “It was Nick who kept it together to keep creators to stay when Facebook came after TikTok with Reels,” a source told On The Money, referring to the Instagram Reels short-video feature. “TikTok is about being part of the culture and amplifying it — and Nick did that.” Last week The Post reported Tran had departed after blindsiding top management with a series of increasingly bizarre campaigns. Tran, a former Hulu executive who had been at TikTok for less than two years, got bounced after “going rogue” with multiple stunts that had sought to rope the wildly popular video-sharing app into new business lines including NFTs and restaurants, these people add. Most recently, Tran revealed a plan — apparently without getting buy-in from senior leadership — to launch “TikTok kitchen” featuring foods made popular on TikTok, according to sources who were on a company call following Tran’s ouster.
