ByteDance boss to step down in big shake-up at TikTok owner

Zhang Yiming, co-founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, instructed workforce of the Chinese technological know-how huge in a memo that he will action down as main government, the business disclosed on Thursday.

He will be succeeded by co-founder Rubo Liang. The shift, first noted by Reuters, signifies the most important company shake-up at ByteDance since its start in 2012. The business grew to become a dominant social media drive in China and turned TikTok into a world feeling.

Mr Zhang wrote that Mr Liang, who was Bytedance’s head of human methods, had been “an priceless lover”, advancing the firm’s technological know-how and employing and controlling folks. He added that he would function with Mr Liang in excess of the following six months to make certain a smooth transition.

Mr Zhang said that just after several months of deliberation he concluded that he would have a better impact on ByteDance’s longer-time period initiatives if he transitioned out of the main government role.

“The truth is, I lack some of the techniques that make an ideal supervisor. I am a lot more intrigued in analysing organisational and marketplace ideas, and leveraging these theories to further cut down management function, instead than basically controlling folks,” Mr Zhang wrote.

“In the same way, I am not incredibly social, preferring solitary things to do like staying on the internet, reading, listening to music and contemplating what could be attainable,” he added.

Mr Zhang’s conclusion to action down comes less than a thirty day period after ByteDance named its main economic officer Shouzi Chew as main government of TikTok.

TikTok has sought to distance by itself from Beijing just after the United States raised national safety concerns in excess of the protection of the individual details it handles.

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration sought to force ByteDance to divest management of the app. A US plan to offer TikTok’s American operations to a consortium that involved Oracle Corp and Walmart Inc languished, nonetheless, after ByteDance launched prosperous legal problems.