‘Not very social’ ByteDance founder to hand CEO reins to college buddy
Zhang Yiming announced he will step down as CEO of TikTok-owner ByteDance, saying he lacked the social skills to be an ideal manager and naming his college roommate Liang Rubo as his successor to navigate a rising tide of Big Tech regulations.
In a surprise announcement to employees on Thursday, Zhang said the change would enable him "to have greater impact on longer-term initiatives". He will move to a "key strategy" position at the end of the year, ByteDance said.
The 38-year-old will be succeeded by Liang, a longtime colleague and the current head of human resources at ByteDance, one of the world's biggest private tech companies with an estimated value of about $300 billion in recent trades.
The management shakeup - ByteDance's biggest since its launch in 2012 comes as Chinese regulators are increasing scrutiny of the country's biggest technology firms.
In April, they handed ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd with a $2.8 billion fine for anticompetitive practices, and last year suspended fintech affiliate Ant Group's initial public offering (IPO).
Anti-trust regulators have also told Tencent Holdings Ltd they are preparing to fine the gaming giant as much as $1.55 billion.
Zhang, who turned ByteDance into a social media force, said he was not in fact a social person.
He blamed the day-to-day challenges of a CEO as being a hurdle to research and innovation, while calling Liang "an invaluable partner" with "strengths in management, organization, and social engagement". "I'm more interested in analysing organisational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people," Zhang, who will remain in his role as chairman, wrote in the memo.
"Similarly, I'm not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and contemplating what may be possible."
In an internal memo seen by Reuters, Liang - also 38 said the new role represented a "huge challenge" with "a lot of pressure".
Liang, not a household name in China, roomed with Zhang at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. He also worked with him at real estate website 99fang.com prior to joining ByteDance. Liang on his LinkedIn profile said he is a ByteDance co-founder.
ByteDance, which employs over 100,000 people worldwide, had been preparing for a muchanticipated IPO this year, but halted the plans in April.