TikTok Parent ByteDance’s Co-Founder Zhang Yiming To Step Down As CEO

Zhang Yiming, co-founder of TikTookay proprietor ByteDance, informed staff of the Chinese know-how big in a memo that he’ll step down as chief govt and be succeeded by co-founder Rubo Liang, the corporate disclosed on Thursday. The transfer, first reported by Reuters, represents the most important company shake-up at ByteDance since its launch in 2012. The firm grew to change into a dominant social media power in China and turned TikTookay, a short-video app fashionable with youngsters, into a worldwide sensation. Zhang wrote within the memo that Liang, whose most up-to-date function at ByteDance was head of human assets, has been “a useful companion”, advancing the company’s technology and hiring and managing people. He added that he would work with Liang over the next six months to ensure a smooth transition.

Zhang wrote in the memo that he concluded after several months of deliberation that he would have a greater impact on ByteDance’s longer-term initiatives if he transitioned out of the CEO role. “The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager. I’m more interested in analyzing organizational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people,” Zhang wrote. “Similarly, I’m not very social, preferring solitary actions like being on-line, studying, listening to music, and considering what could also be potential,” he added. Zhang’s decision to step down comes less than a month after ByteDance named its chief financial officer Shouzi Chew as CEO of TikTok.