ByteDance’s CEO has announced he’s stepping down from his role leading the company whose success with TikTok led it to become the world’s most valuable start-up.
Zhang Yiming,
who co-founded ByteDance in 2012, will move to another position at the company,
and fellow co-founder Liang Rubo will become the new CEO. Liang presently runs
HR at ByteDance.
In a lengthy
internal letter that ByteDance later made public, Zhang ruminated on his
position and how he feels he’d be more effective in another role. Zhang says “I
worry I am still relying too much on the ideas I had before starting the
company, and haven’t challenged myself by updating those concepts.”
“I think someone
else can better drive progress through areas like improved daily management,”
he continues. “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. Similarly, I’m not very social, preferring solitary activities like
being online, reading, listening to music, and daydreaming about what may be
possible.”
Zhang
describes Liang as an “invaluable partner” and started discussions about him
taking over as ByteDance CEO back in March. The transition will take place over
the next six months, and Zhang’s new role will focus on “long-term strategy,
corporate culture, and social responsibility,” according to the company.
The
announcement heralds a major change for ByteDance’s corporate leadership, but
it shouldn’t affect the day-to-day operations of TikTok too much. Last month
ByteDance announced that former Xiaomi CFO Chew Shouzi would assume the role of
dedicated TikTok CEO after having hired him in March to take over as CFO of the
parent company.
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