Reuters - TikTok owner ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming says is stepping down as chief of the China technology company and will be replaced by its human resources head Liang Rubo, the company said Thursday.
It is the biggest corporate shake-up at ByteDance since its launch in 2012. The company grew to become a dominant social media force in China and turned TikTok, a short-video app popular with teenagers, into an international sensation.
Zhang will move to a "key strategy" position at the end of this year, ByteDance said in a statement.
Zhang wrote in the memo that Liang, whose most recent role at ByteDance was head of human resources, has been "an invaluable partner," advancing the company's technology and hiring and managing people. He said he would work with Liang over the next six months to ensure a smooth transition.
Zhang said he concluded after several months of deliberation that he would have a greater effect on ByteDance's longer-term initiatives if moved from the chief executive's 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 said.
"Similarly, I'm not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music and contemplating what may be possible," he added.
Less than a month ago ByteDance named its chief financial officer Shouzi Chew as chief executive of TikTok.
TikTok has sought to distance itself from China after the U.S. raised national security concerns over the safety of the personal data it handles.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump's administration sought to force ByteDance to divest control of the application. A U.S. plan to sell TikTok's American operations to a consortium that included Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. languished, however, after ByteDance launched successful legal challenges.
ByteDance, which employs more than 100,000 people worldwide, had been making preparations for an initial public offering earlier this year but then halted plans in April.
The 9-year-old company's previous organizational shake up was last year, when Zhang appointed chairperson Zhang Lidong and chief executive Kelly Zhang at ByteDance's China business.
